


Cool Hand.

by steeleye



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cool Hand Luke
Genre: Dark, F/F, Horror, Humour, action adventure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-02 23:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 54,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14555673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: A girl called Dawn Summers runs away from home. After turning to a life of crime she's caught and sentenced to two years hard labour for destroying municipal property. Dawn uncovers a horrifying truth; she must serve a demon or die. Violence, brutality and minor femslash ensue.





	1. Chapter 1

Cool Hand.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own ‘Cool Hand Luke’, which was directed by Stuart Rosenberg and written by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Story based on the classic 1967 movie ‘Cool Hand Luke’.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English (the original and best) which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** Set some time in the near future.

 **Words:** 18 Chapters of 3000+ words.

 **Warnings:** **Dark Fic** , warnings for violence and brutality, minor femslash.

 **Summary:** A girl called Dawn Summers runs away from home. After turning to a life of crime she's caught and sentenced to two years hard labour for destroying municipal property. Dawn uncovers a horrifying truth; she must serve a demon or die. Violence, brutality and minor femslash ensue.

0=0=0=0

Sensing the van coming to a halt, Dawn shifted on her hard metal seat and opened her eyes. Throughout the long, hot journey she’d pretended to be asleep so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the three other women in the back of the van with her. Looking around the dark interior, she had just enough time to register the fearful looks on the other women’s faces as footsteps approached the back of the vehicle. After a short pause, pregnant with possibilities, she heard a key being inserted into the lock that secured the van’s doors, moments later sunlight flooded into the compartment and she became aware of a figure holding a rifle or shotgun standing just outside on a dusty parking lot.

“Out!” Ordered the voice, a woman’s voice, hard and unforgiving.

Sighing to herself, Dawn climbed stiffly from the back of the van, the female guard pointed to a spot on the gravel covered yard and Dawn obediently went to stand there. Turning she found herself facing a clapboard, single story house that had once been painted white but was now a dirty grey; Dawn took the time to look around. Trees, a high chain-link fence with a couple of long low, dirty white huts behind it; dry grass, low guard towers and something that looked like a wooden telephone booth. All these things were quickly imprinted on her mind and eye. Turning her head at the sound of a dog barking, she saw a woman in prison fatigues petting a large hound of some kind.

“All right,” ordered the guard her shotgun held loosely in her hand, “you women get lined up here,” she turned to call over her shoulder as the other women came to stand next to Dawn, “Dog-Woman! You shut those dogs up, y’hear?”

“They’re just smellin’ the new-meat, Boss,” called the woman; Dawn just knew she was going to love her…not!

“Wait here,” ordered the guard as she took a large brown envelope from the male van driver and turned to walk slowly towards the house.

Dawn didn’t know whether to be happy or not about there being female guards, from what she’d seen so far, she guessed that nearly all the guards were women the others, of course, men. This could be good or bad, it depended on the man in charge; in her experience women guards could be just as big bastards as male ones, sometimes worse. They knew all the right places to hit to inflict the maximum pain.

The house had a deep veranda running around it, which made a dark shadow that was difficult to see into from out on the sunny parking lot; Dawn needn’t have worried at what might be hiding in those dark shadows though. A short, rotund, man in a white shirt, khaki pants and a straw hat moved out of the shadow and stood at the top of the stairs leading down onto the parking lot. The female guard handed him the envelope.

“What they bring us today?” he asked rhetorically and started to take sheets of official forms out of the envelope. “Gibson 507, Manslaughter,” the man read out. “Good for a two spot.”

The guard walked from the house to stand behind the prisoner at the opposite end of the line from Dawn.

“It was an accident,” Gibson called, she was a blonde and looked like she’d been someone’s secretary, “I’ve never been in trouble with the law.” 

“You call the Captain, Captain,” the guard informed her ignoring anything she might have to say.

“Potter, 302, and resisting arrest,” the Captain continued as if no one had spoken, “one year.”

“I was trying to keep outta the rain,” Potter, who stood next to Dawn explained.

The guard whacked Potter across the back of her legs with a cane; she jumped in surprise and yelped in pain.

“Get the wax outta your ears,” the guard told her, “an' call the Captain, Captain.”

“Yes ma’am,” Potter replied, chastened, as she rubbed the sore spots on her legs.

“And you call the rest of us ‘Boss’, y’hear?” the guard informed Potter and everyone else.

“Yes, Boss,” Potter agreed rapidly.

“Pratt,” the Captain went on reading from the forms, “Breaking, entering and assault, five years.”

Pratt, a red haired woman, wisely said not a word.

“Summers,” the Captain finally got to Dawn.

“Here Captain,” Dawn said lifting her hand slightly.

“Maliciously destroying municipal property whilst under the influence,” the Captain intoned his face getting more puzzled as he read, “What was that?”

“Cutting the heads off of parking meters, Captain,” Dawn replied with a shrug.

“We ain’t never had one of those before,” the Captain scratched the back of his head; Dawn could tell that the Captain didn’t know what to make of her, “where’d you think that was gonna get you?”

“I guess you could say I wasn’t totally thinking straight, Captain,” Dawn replied keeping her expression neutral.

“It says here that you’re educated an’ everything,” the Captain gestured to the form, “you should be in college not here, girl.”

“That’s the way the cards fell, Captain,” Dawn shrugged at a loss at what more she could say.

“Well,” the Captain looked at her over the top of the forms, “you got y’self two years to think it over, Summers.”

Putting the forms back into their envelope, the Captain prepared to make the same speech that he made to all new prisoners.

“We got a couple of women here doin’ twenty years,” he told the newcomers, “we’ve even got one doin’ life, we’ve got them all here and you’re gonna fit in real good. Good behaviour and hard work will be rewarded and you could find yourself transferred to a more relaxed facility. Bad behaviour will be punished,” the Captain looked at each woman in turn, “believe me when I tell you I will come down on wrong doers like the wrath of The Lord!”

The Captain let that sink in for a little before speaking again.

“Of course if you get to feeling like you wanna go home,” the Captain smiled indulgently, “we _will_ bring you back; you _will_ get some bonus time added to your sentence plus a set of fancy leg-irons so as to slow you down…a fashion accessory you will not enjoy.”

Pausing again the Captain looked along the short line of prisoners as if he was looking for something. When he came to Dawn his eyes seemed to linger on her a little longer than they had on the other women. It was as if he saw something in her that the other women lacked. Not wanting to meet his eye, Dawn kept her head down, she knew the score she’d been locked up once before back when she was about seventeen. Having been arrested for burglary she’d spent six months in a juvenile facility up in New York State, it’d been an education in more ways than one.

That was a good three years ago now, but the memories and lessons she’d learnt there were burnt deep into her memory. They told her to keep her head down, don’t draw attention to herself and do whatever she was told without complaint…and stay away from any guard who couldn’t keep his dick zipped up tight.

“You’ll learn the rules,” the Captain told them, “an’ if you stick to them your time here will be tolerable, it’s really all up to you.” The Captain removed his hat and ran his hand through his sparse hair, “I can be a nice guy, or I can be one mean son-of-a-bitch…it’s all up to you.”

The Captain turned away from the prisoners and disappeared back into the dark shadows under the veranda.

“Turn to your left,” ordered the female guard, “follow me.”

Leading the way along a concrete path the guard led them towards a gate in the chain-link fence that surrounded the little prison compound. As they walked, Dawn took the opportunity to look around some more. The compound was surrounded by trees on three sides, the side facing the road being clear. There were two large wooden huts, one was obviously a barracks the other doubtless contained such things as the kitchen and laundry. There were several smaller huts the purpose of which Dawn couldn’t fathom, she suspected she’d find out what they were for later.

The perimeter fence was maybe eight feet high with a couple of strands of rusty barbed wire decorating the top. Obviously the Captain and his guards didn’t expect the prisoners to try and break out; in fact from what she’d seen security appeared pretty lax, she’d seen precisely two guards to guard them and the few prisoners that were doing work around the compound. The one guard tower that she could see was empty and although both the guards had nice, shiny, new, pump action riot-guns they didn’t carry them particularly aggressively. No, it all seemed pretty relaxed, Dawn wondered why. A childhood spent growing up in Sunnydale (even if all her memories where false, put there by the monks who’d made her) had taught her to be suspicious of everything. They got to the gate and Dawn looked up to read the sign above it; ‘Division of Corrections’, the sign read, ‘Road Prison 36’. Shrugging her shoulders resignedly, Dawn marched through the gate and into her new home.

0=0=0=0

When Willow had brought Buffy back from the dead, Dawn had been so happy it was like being brought back from the grave herself. Having missed her sister so badly, Dawn had been overjoyed to have a second chance at getting to know her. However, it didn’t take long for her to realise that Buffy didn’t want to be back in the world of the living. Either consciously or unconsciously, she seemed to be doing all that she could to get herself killed so she could once again experience the peace that she had felt when she’d been dead.

Slowly over a period of months, Dawn found herself rejected by her sister, she became increasingly bitter about the tears she’d shed over Buffy’s death. To her it seemed that Buffy didn’t care, that everything was just too much trouble and she’d be happier dead or, failing that, if Dawn just wasn’t there anymore…that she’d never existed. The final straw came when Willow and Tara broke up. The two witches had been the one solid thing left in her life that Dawn could anchor herself to; Tara had been like a mother to her and Willow had been more of a big sister to her than Buffy had been recently.

Once that relationship was torn asunder, Dawn felt she had no one and nothing left to stay for. The very next day after Tara had left, instead of going to school, Dawn had gone to the bank, drawn out all her meagre saving and bought a train ticket heading east. Having some vague idea of starting a new life for herself on the east coast, Dawn found her dreams of independence and supporting herself quickly dashed. Drifting from waitress job to waitress job and one poky little room to another, Dawn soon had her romantic notions of a life on the road crushed.

After her money ran out and when she couldn’t even find a job waitressing, Dawn found herself on the street having to steal to keep her belly full. The one thing she was proud of, however, was in all that time was she never turned to prostitution to support herself; not that she hadn’t had offers. She’d had some that had sounded pretty tempting at the time, but she’d always told herself; that was what Buffy probably expected her to do. So, she’d always refused and run if the offers became too persistent. Okay, so she’d shacked up with guys here and there, just to have someone to look after her once in awhile, but she always told herself that it wasn’t like real prostitution. It was like going into partnership with someone with each partner bringing something to the table. In the case of the guy, he’d bring her food, shelter and security. In Dawn’s case she’d bring her body.

As time passed, Dawn became tougher and wiser in the ways of the sub-culture that lay behind the façade of American society. Soon she found people looking to her for advice in dealing with the things that prayed on them in the night. Knowing something about the things that lurked in the shadows of every American city had finally come in useful. Soon people were saying that if you did what Dawn told you, you had a chance of surviving when the things that roamed the night came for you.

At the age of twenty, Dawn decided that she couldn’t face another New York winter and headed south. Maybe it was the prospect of her twentieth-first birthday looming on the horizon or maybe she couldn’t face the cold anymore. Whatever the reason she hitched rides or rode the bus until she came to some anonymous little town in the Deep South where everything looked as if it was stuck back in the 50’s or 60’s. One night, after a particularly successful session playing poker, she’d gone out to cerebrate. Foolishly she’d drunk too much and taken it into her head to cut the heads off a row of parking meters. They’d been staring at her all night and she’d convinced herself that they were some sort of weird, metal, demons.

When the patrol car had come up beside her, Dawn had been sitting on the sidewalk opening another bottle of beer. The cop had walked up to her, hooked his thumbs into his gun-belt and asked her, quite politely as it happened, what she thought she was doing. Not having a good answer for this rather world weary cop, Dawn suggested that he better arrest her. Going quietly, almost eagerly, she soon found herself in front of the local judge and sentenced to two years hard labour; Dawn remembered she’d been surprised that ‘hard labour’ still existed. After a day or two in the sheriff’s cells she found herself loaded into the back of a prison van with three other women and driven out to Road Prison 36.

0=0=0=0

After a tepid shower and a body search carried out by a so-called paramedic; who Dawn was convinced was actually the local vet, he’d pushed his fingers so far up her ass she thought they'd come out of the top of her head; she received her prison uniform. Surprised that it wasn’t the same stylish day-glow orange that she’d worn in New York, she put on the denim jeans and shirt over the cotton t-shirt and panties she’d been given. Next came socks and big heavy work boots that were a little too large for her, but she didn’t complain. The woman called Gibson did and received a whack across the back of her legs from a guard’s cane for her trouble. Of course, Dawn knew better than to complain and followed her own rule of not drawing attention to herself until she knew how this place worked.

Next she and her companions in penal servitude where introduced to Carla. Carla was a white woman in her early thirties; she called herself the ‘Floor Walker’. Although she was a prisoner it was her job to keep order in the barracks and make sure everyone kept to the rules. One of the most important rules was that everyone should only use things, or wear things, that had their personal number on it. Dawn’s number was thirty-seven. It was written in indelible ink on all her clothes. It was engraved on her spoon, which appeared to be the only eating utensil allowed; she would sleep on a bunk marked with that number under blankets and sheets with that number printed on them. Failure to follow these simple rules (which to be honest Dawn could see the point of as they’d help cut down on petty theft between the inmates) would result in a night spent in ‘The Box’.

There was also a long list of other misdemeanours that would end up with a prisoner spending a night in ‘The Box’. Anything from smoking in the prone position while in bed to sitting on your bunk in dirty clothes, they could all end up with a trip to ‘The Box’. Putting two and two together, Dawn worked out what the box was; it must’ve been that strange telephone booth shaped hut out near the perimeter wire. It looked as if it was so designed to prevent an inmate from lying down. The best that anyone locked in the box could do, would be to remain standing all night or crouch on the floor, neither position would be conducive to a good nights sleep. Suspecting that sleep was going to be important to her continuing well-being, Dawn promised to keep her visits to the box to a bare minimum. After Carla had explained the rules of the house, she asked if anyone had any questions. Wincing, Dawn watched as Gibson put up her hand, there always had to be one, she told herself.

“What’s this box thing?” Gibson asked in all innocence.

“Boss?” Carla turned to look at the male guard who’d been standing quietly in the corner watching as Carla did her ‘Prison 101’ lecture.

“Come with me, 36,” the guard grinned as he pushed open the door, “an’ I’ll give you the guided tour…anyone else wanna see?”

Shaking her head, Dawn joined the others in watching Gibson being led away; she’d be surprised if she saw the blonde girl again before tomorrow morning. After the guard had taken Gibson away, Carla told them to find their bunks and square away their gear in the lockers provided. Walking along the line of double bunks, twelve on one side of the hut and thirteen on the other, Dawn found her bunk. Smiling she put her stuff on the mattress, it was a top bunk, in most jails people would fight over the possession of a top bunk. Top bunks gave you status and a chance of a better night’s sleep. While she was quite willing and able to fight for ownership of a top bunk, Dawn was just as happy to have one assigned to her.

As she made up her bed, Dawn took the opportunity to take a closer look at the barracks. The hut was just wide enough to accommodate the two rows of bunks and a narrow passageway between them. Lengthwise the hut allowed for the space taken by each bunk plus maybe two feet between each bed. At the end furthest from her bunk was the washroom; showers, sinks and toilets and a fenced off area where a guard sat at night or when there were inmates in the hut. Next to this guard station was one of the two doors in or out of the hut. The guard had a door in his little section so he or she could lock the main door from outside. There were large windows down each side of the hut covered with heavy wire mesh. In foul weather wooden shutters could be lowered over the windows to prevent the rain getting in. The place looked well swept, it didn’t stink and quite honestly Dawn could think of a lot worse places she could spend the next two years of her life. After making her bunk and stowing her gear, Dawn was just in time to see the gate in the perimeter fence open to admit her fellow prisoners. Wondering what they’d be like she went and sat on her bunk and watched and waited.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

Sitting cross-legged on the end of her bunk, Dawn watched as the noisy crowd of young women pushed and shoved their way into the barracks. Several of the inmates appeared to have some sort of bet running on how many new prisoners there’d be. There were several exchanges about who owed what to whom as they went over to the washroom and washed their hands and faces under the taps. One girl asked Dawn if she was from Connecticut, shaking her head Dawn climbed slowly down from her bunk and walked towards the door. Still chattering loudly the young women rushed outside and started to head for the other hut Dawn had seen earlier.

“What are you waiting for?” Carla turned towards Dawn and the other new girls, “Hit them beans.”

Realising this was an invitation to go and eat the three young women headed for the door. Being last in line Dawn received a swift kick on the butt as she passed Carla. Glancing over her shoulder she saw the woman smiling (not in a nasty way) there’d been no real force behind the kick so she assumed it wasn't meant maliciously, it was better than being whacked by one of the canes all the guards seemed to carry.

Supper consisted of some fatty pork, beans and corn bread, boring and not exactly healthy but the cook gave you plenty of it so Dawn didn’t think she was going to starve. As a concession to healthy living each prisoner was allowed one piece of fruit, either an apple or an orange, Dawn chose an orange after she’d finished her meal and washed off her plate. Thrusting her spoon into the pocket of her jeans she walked outside and sat off to one side of the main crowd of prisoners as she peeled and ate her orange.

The inmates looked healthy and well fed, not like when she was in jail up in New York. There most of the inmates looked pale from being inside all the time and thin because you never seemed to get quite enough to eat. No one looked abused; again unlike New York where the guards would only supply you with extra food or drugs in return for ‘favours’. But still Dawn felt uneasy about the place, it took her a little time before the penny dropped and she kicked herself for not seeing it sooner.

Every single girl in the prison yard was white. Okay, she’d heard rumours about some of the more backward areas of the southern states only paying lip-service to integration, but this was ridiculous; there wasn’t even a single Latino girl or oriental. Once she’d noticed this something else struck her as odd; none of the women apart from Carla and the woman who looked after those hounds she’d seen earlier, looked older than their mid twenties. In fact one or two of the inmates looked too young for an adult facility.

As the sun dropped rapidly towards the horizon, Dawn followed the other prisoners back towards the barracks. Entering the hut she saw the other two new arrivals trying to integrate themselves into the group. Preferring to remain aloof and project an air of mystery, Dawn passed by the main group and headed for her bunk. Climbing back up onto her bed she continued to watch the interplay between the inmates without looking as if she was taking too much notice of what was going on around her.

Very quickly Dawn picked out who was in charge of the prisoners; Carla might be in charge of the hut and the Captain and the bosses might think they were in charge of camp, but one particular woman was in charge of the prisoners. No one seemed to do or say anything without her approval; she was the centre of everything going on in the hut.

“Who’s the Queen Bitch?” Dawn asked the girl who was sitting on the bunk next to hers.

“Say what?” The girl looked up from her game of solitaire and turned to look at Dawn; she was about the same age as Dawn with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

“Her,” Dawn nodded towards the heavily built young woman at the centre of the game of cards.

“Oh her,” the brunette laughed quietly, “Dragline, she’s top girl ‘round here.”

“Right,” Dawn breathed quietly, it was always good to know the pecking order in any society, “I’m Dawn Summers by the way.”

“Becky Kartalion,” replied the other girl, “I’m know as ‘Ace’, you ain’t got a name ‘til Dragline gives you one, so until then you’re New-Meat.”

“Great,” Dawn sighed, this was nothing unusual she’d experienced the same sort of thing up in New York. “So,” Dawn smiled pleasantly, “if you’re called ‘Ace’ you must be good at cards so why aren’t you playing?”

“Ah,” Ace nodded wisely as she laid down a card, “that would be because I’m too good at playin’ cards; that’s why I’m here y’see?”

“Since when has being too good at cards been a jailing offence?” Dawn wanted to know.

“Since it caused a riot when the locals found out I was cheating,” Ace laughed lightly. “Got two years for cheating,” she shrugged, “better than being lynched, them good ol’ boys were real mad about being taken by itty-bitty me.”

“Yeah,” Dawn agreed, “I could see how they could be…so what’s it like here? Like, what are the guards like?”

“You done time before?” Ace collected up her cards and shuffled them.

“Yeah,” Dawn nodded, “I did some time up in New York a couple of years ago.”

“Well,” Ace started to deal out her cards again, “this ain’t New York.”

“Totally,” Dawn agreed.

“You worried the guards might get to wantin’ to screw your pretty white ass?” Ace asked.

“Uh-huh,” Dawn agreed, “something like that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ace looked up at Dawn and smiled reassuringly, “Captain doesn’t approve of ‘relations’ between prisoners and guards.”

“Yeah,” Dawn gave her new found friend a disbelieving look, “I’ve heard that one before.”

“No!” Ace looked up from her cards, “Its true…look; a couple of months ago one of the bosses was caught with his dick in a girl’s mouth.”

“So what happened,” Dawn expected to hear that the girl had been punished and the guard let off with a warning.

“The girl,” Ace started to explain, “she got transferred to the farm and the boss got fired, like I say the Captain don’t like anyone messing about with his girls.”

“What about girls messing around with girls?” Dawn wanted to know.

“Well,” Ace shrugged, “if’n you’re that way inclined, as long as you’re discreet no one minds too much.”

“Discreet?”

“No kissing or holding hands in public,” Ace laid down several cards one after the other, “an’ go somewhere private when you want to get down and dirty, its okay. Just don’t rub anyone’s face in it…” Ace laughed quietly when she realized what she’d just said, “...get it?” she smiled, “Rub y’face in it?”

“Yeah,” Dawn agreed with a wry smile, “you’re a comic genius…”

“You, that way inclined’?” Ace wanted to know with just a hint of hope in her voice.

“No,” Dawn shook her head, “don’t worry I won’t be trying to climb into your bunk in the wee small hours.”

Having tried a little girl on girl action when she’d been inside up in New York, Dawn hadn’t enjoyed it much and didn’t try it again. If she hadn’t got a guy to push all her buttons in the right way she much preferred to deal with it herself.

“…so what happened to the last thirty-seven?” Dawn referred to the number on all her gear.

“You really want to know everything don’t you?” Ace started to clear away her cards again.

“Sure,” Dawn agreed, “knowledge girl, that’s me.”

“Okay,” Ace put her cards to one side and sat with her legs hanging over the side of her bunk facing Dawn, “let’s see. Titty, that was the old thirty-seven, an’ Blue, their time was up an’ they got released. Snake and Runner got transferred to The Farm.”

“The Farm?” Dawn asked, “What’s the farm?”

“Don’t rightly know,” Ace admitted, “another prison I ‘spose. Anyway every few months usually just before new-meat turns up a few girls get transferred to The Farm.”

“Why?” Dawn was curious, “Like, had they done something bad? Was it a punishment?”

“No,” Ace frowned, “y’know I’d not thought about if before but now you mention it…”

“Like?” Dawn prompted.

“Well,” Ace sighed, “some of the girls who get sent to the farm are, y’know model prisoners, others go because they try to run or sass the bosses, don’t seem much reason behind it other than the number that go is exactly the same as the number of new-meat arriving.”

“Right,” Dawn breathed as memories of Sunnydale came back to haunt her once more.

“So, what you in for?” Ace wanted to know.

“Cutting the heads off parking meters,” Dawn admitted.

“Y’what?” Ace stared at her in astonishment, “Why f’christ’s sake?”

“Ooh,” Dawn sighed tiredly, “I thought they were watching me and I totally didn’t like it…I was wicked drunk too, like totally!”

“Well, I gotta say that’s a new one on me,” Ace jumped down from her bunk and started to head for the washroom, “come on,” she called to Dawn, “its almost time for ‘First Bell’, you might wanna take a pee before the rush.”

“Yeah,” Dawn jumped down from her bunk and followed Ace, “totally.”

“So,” Ace went into one of the stalls and pushed the door closed behind her, “what happened to the new thirty-six?”

“In the box,” Dawn called from her own stall.

“Already?” Ace called back, “What she do? Try to screw one of the hounds?”

“No,” Dawn laughed as she pulled up her jeans and flushed, “she just asked a stupid question.”

“Oh,” Ace reappeared and went to wash her hands, “one of those…hey kid.”

“What?” Dawn frowned; she hated being called ‘kid’.

“Watch out for that box,” Ace said quietly, “you’ll end up in there sometime, you won’t be able to avoid it, just don’t make it a habit.”

“Don’t worry I won’t,” Dawn agreed.

“An’ those canes the bosses carry?” Ace lowered her voice making sure they weren’t over heard, “sometimes if the bosses get real pissed at you they take you behind a hut and beat the crap outta you.”

“Okay, I see,” Dawn nodded her head slowly, “I’ll bear that in mind, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Ace nodded and started back towards her bunk.

Moments later a loud electric bell rang, first bell.

0=0=0=0

“First bell!” Carla shouted from the far end of the hut just in case anyone hadn’t noticed the deafening noise of a minute ago. Immediately prisoners started to clear up what they’d been doing or headed off to the washroom. Walking towards her bed, Dawn drifted between the bustling bodies until she was standing by her bunk. Kicking off her boots and pulling off her socks, she glanced around to see what was normal for sleeping.

Most of the women were stripping down to their panties before climbing into their bunks, with a shrug Dawn followed suit. Climbing up onto her bed she pulled the sheet and blanket back and lay down. Being used to the colder north, Dawn had worried that the single blanket she’d been given wouldn’t be warm enough. Now as she lay there sweating slightly she doubted that she’d want to pull the sheet over herself let alone the blanket.

The second bell rang and Carla shouted out just to confirm what everyone had just heard, moments later the electric lights went out and Dawn was left in darkness with her own thoughts. Lying there listening to the sounds made by her fellow inmates, she wondered what Buffy was doing right about now. Turning on to her side she speculated on whether her sister was even still alive, what about Giles, Xander, Willow? Had Willow and Tara ever got back together? As her eyelids got heavier and sleep started to claim her, Dawn thought about going back and trying to find her old friends when she finally got out of this joint. Perhaps she could even try to make things up with her sister.

0=0=0=0

The bell rang waking Dawn out of a deep sleep, it was still dark outside and she felt like she’d only been asleep for a couple of hours. Rolling out of her bunk she dropped to the floor and looked around to see what everyone else was doing.

“Come on, New-Meat,” Ace called from the other side of the bunk as she pulled on her jeans, “get dressed quick y’don’t wanna spend a night in the box do ya?”

Quickly, pulling a t-shirt over her head Dawn got dressed and had just enough time to take a pee before Carla hustled every one outside. The morning air was cool against her skin after the humid heat of the barracks. The sky was a clear, dark blue as the eastern horizon started to lighten, the sun wouldn’t be up for a while yet, but when it did, Dawn bet herself it would shine down on them without mercy. The prisoners started to line up over by the gate in numerical order. Taking her place behind thirty-five, thirty-six-Gibson still being in the box, Dawn watched as a couple of bosses worked their way along the line of prisoners putting leg-irons on some of the women.

“They tried to run,” Ace explained in a whisper before crying out in surprise, “OWWW!”

“No talking!” ordered the boss as he slid his cane back into his belt and walked away.

“No Boss!” Ace rubbed her butt where she’d been hit, “Thank-you, Boss.”

Another rule to remember, Dawn told herself, no talking. Everything appeared to be ready for the prisoners to march out of the gate and go wherever they were going; looking around, Dawn saw what the hold up was. Over by the box two guards were unlocking the door, after pulling it open the bosses stood back and one of them pointed her shot gun casually at the dimly seen figure curled up on the floor of the box.

“Out!” Ordered the boss with the shotgun, the figure didn’t move.

“I said OUT!” The boss reached in and dragged Gibson out into the early morning light.

Now Gibson was fully out of the box, Dawn saw her lying naked at the boss’s feet her legs curled up underneath her body. Dawn suspected she’d suffered agonies of cramp during the night.

“Get up bitch,” said the female boss levelly, “an’ get y’self dressed.”

When Gibson didn’t move fast enough, the male boss hit her across the butt with his cane leaving a bright red welt across her lily white skin. Screaming in pain, Gibson held her butt for a moment before pushing herself slowly to her feet. Sobbing quietly, she pulled on her clothes while the bosses stood over her waiting impatiently for her to get dressed. 

“Move yourself,” the male boss swatted Gibson with his cane again and she stumbled off towards the barracks.

“Where the hell do y’think you’re goin’?” The female boss grabbed hold of Gibson’s arm as she staggered towards the barracks.

“But…” Gibson pointed weakly towards the barrack hut, “…I’ve got to…”

“You think you’re gonna take it easy all day?” Asked the male boss, “While everyone else is workin’ out in the hot sun?”

“But…” Gibson sobbed as the tears fell from her reddened eyes, “…I-I haven’t eaten since yesterday, I can’t…”

“Tough!” The male boss pushed her towards the waiting prisoners and then forced her into line in front of Dawn.

“But…” Gibson started to try and explain that she couldn’t possibly work today; this time both of the bosses hit her, she fell to the ground at Dawn’s feet.

“You,” the female boss pointed her cane at Dawn who flinched away from the woman without thinking. “get her on her feet and make sure she stays there.”

“Yes Boss,” Dawn bent to pull Gibson to her feet as the boss walked away. “Keep your freaking mouth shut,” Dawn whispered as she pulled Gibson to her feet and pushed her into line.

“B-but…I can’t,” cried Gibson as she tried to hold on to Dawn’s shoulders.

“You freakin’ can and you freakin’ will!” Dawn snarled under her breath just before she felt something like a line of fire slash across her shoulders, “AAAGH!”

Turning she saw a boss, middle aged but still looking lean and fit. He wore the normal prison boss’s uniform with an old style cowboy gun-belt around his waist. In one hand he held a cane in the other he held a rifle. But what scared Dawn more than either the cane or the rifle were the mirror shades he wore under his wide brimmed hat; she had the distinct feeling that if he took those glasses off there’d be no eyes underneath, just deep black holes.

“Yes Boss,” Dawn muttered as she looked at her feet to avoided looking at those scary mirror shades, “thank-you Boss.”

The boss walked slowly away heading towards the front of the line.

“Who’s that?” Dawn whispered as she struggled to hold up the weeping Gibson.

“Boss Godfrey,” Ace replied quietly, “he’s the Walking Boss. He’s in charge when we’re out on the road; they call him ‘The Man With No Eyes’ ‘cause no one’s seen him with those glasses off.”

“Great,” Dawn replied with no great enthusiasm as the line started to move forward and she steered Gibson towards the gate.

Walking in single file towards the gate, the prisoners shouted out their numbers as they passed out into the world outside the wire. Of course Gibson didn’t call out her number and got hit again; Dawn got hit again because the boss on the gate thought she should have reminded Gibson. Rubbing her stinging butt cheeks, Dawn lined up behind one of two old army trucks that stood waiting for the prisoners in the parking lot. The trucks had had their canvas covers removed and replaced by metal shelters with wire mesh over their doors and windows.

Pushing Gibson towards the back of the truck, Dawn saw that you had to climb up into the truck using a few hand and foot holds, she knew Gibson would never make it in the state she was in at the moment. Turning she pleaded silently for help from Ace. The young woman shrugged and nodded her head. When it came time for Gibson to climb into the back of the truck, Dawn and Ace took her by the arms and legs and more or less threw her into the back of the truck. Scrambling up behind the blonde, Dawn dragged her the length of the truck and then sat down in a corner but left Gibson on the floor where she’d already fallen asleep. Moments later the truck’s engine started and they drove away from the camp.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

_I couldn't tell you why she felt that way,  
She felt it everyday.  
And I couldn't help her,  
I just watched her make the same mistakes again._

Avril Lavigne ‘Nobody's Home’.

0=0=0=0

“Hey Blondie!” Dragline got up out of her seat by the door and shook Gibson until she woke up, “Ya better keep those pretty, baby blues open unless y’wanna spend another night in the box.”

The other prisoners in the back of the truck laughed quietly, Dawn eyed Dragline from her corner but said nothing.

“It’s gonna be one hot mother today,” announced a woman who sat next to Dragline.

“Yeah,” agreed another inmate, “reckon the devil’s gonna be walkin’ the road today.”

Sitting in her corner, Dawn folded her arms across her chest, closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep; although her eyes were closed, Dawn’s ears picked up everything going on around her.

“Me I’m lucky,” explained the girl sitting next to Dragline, her name was Koko, “I gotta broom, I work up top,” she sighed dramatically, “I’m glad I ain't gonna be in the ditch today.”

“Not a good day to learn on,” another voice Dawn didn’t recognise.

“Hey Koko,” Dragline said slowly, “how about you swap jobs with Blondie here?”

“What give up an easy job,” Koko complained, “no–way Drag.”

“Oh come on, Koko,” Dragline pleaded, “look at her, she’s dead on her feet and the day ain’t even started.”

There were mutterings of approval for Dragline’s suggestion; Dawn opened her eyes a fraction and watched Dragline’s face. Seeing no pity there, Dawn immediately realised that the big prisoner was hazing Gibson, but the blonde girl was too exhausted to recognise when she was being taken for a ride.

“Well,” Koko shrugged, “I suppose if she had something to trade…”

“Please…” Gibson gasped, “…I’ll give you anything…”

“Two bucks when you get your pay,” Koko replied swiftly.

“It’s yours,” Gibson promised, “what do I do?”

“Well,” Dragline smiled nastily, “when they’re handing out the tools, just go to Boss Paula and tell her you’ve swapped jobs with Koko here, she’ll be fine with it.”

All the other prisoners in the back of the truck, except Dawn chuckled quietly, but Gibson was too far gone to notice.

“Leave her alone,” Dawn felt she had to say something; another night in the box would probably kill Gibson.

“Or you’ll what, College Girl?” Dragline snapped back.

“Where’d you get that about how I could have gone to college?” Dawn rested her head against the side of the truck and kept her eyes closed as if she didn’t care about Dragline’s implied threat.

“A little birdie told me,” Dragline replied unsure what to make of Dawn’s laid-back attitude. “Tearing the heads off, what was it?” Dragline looked at Koko.

“Gumball machines?” Koko suggested and everyone laughed.

“What kind of thing is that?” Dragline wanted to know.

“Well,” Dawn sighed as a small smile played across her lips, “you know how it is? Small town, nothing much to do at night,” again all the prisoners laughed, this time with her not at her, Dragline didn’t look happy that Dawn had so easily parried her verbal attack.

Moments later the trucks slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road, a couple of minutes after that a boss came and unlocked the gate at the back of the truck and gestured with his shotgun for the prisoners to climb down. Slowly and with the maximum of grumbling the inmates did as they were told. Standing on the road, Dawn looked up and down the dusty tarmac. The road seemed to go on like a black line into infinity, vanishing in a tiny, black, point on the horizon. On either side of the road lay perfectly flat fields of dry, straw coloured grass separated from the road by a tumble down barbed wire fence. Between the fence and the road was a deep drainage ditch; Dawn could see how it had been freshly dug out up to the point where the trucks had stopped. Looking on down the road she could see there was still miles of ditch left to work on.

“Move it, Summers,” Boss Paula punctuated her words with a half hearted swipe of her cane aimed at Dawn’s legs.

“Sure thing, Boss!” Dawn moved quickly towards where the prisoners were getting shovels and other tools from the back of a pick-up.

Joining the end of the line, Dawn quickly found herself at the front and being handed a long handled shovel and a pair of work gloves. Turning away from the pick-up she noticed Gibson standing nervously to one side; Dawn groaned inwardly. If the girl didn’t shape up soon she’d not survive the week let alone the two years she’d been sentenced to.

“Excuse me Boss,” Gibson raised her hand hesitantly just like a kid in class asking if she could be excused; Boss Paula turned to look at the woman an impassive expression on her face.

“I-I made an arrangement with that woman,” Gibson pointed at Koko who was heading down the road aways brush in hand, “to swap jobs.”

“Move,” Boss Paula took a step towards Gibson, “and get on with your work.”

“B-but, Boss,” pleaded Gibson, “I-I can’t work in the ditch today…”

“I said move,” Boss Paula spoke between gritted teeth; Dawn thought she was showing remarkable restrain, she hadn’t hit Gibson…yet.

“But Boss!” Gibson sobbed as her world finally collapsed around her and the realisation that for the next two years at least, that this was her life finally hit home. “I was in the box all night I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning I…”

“Get on with your work!” Boss Paula jabbed Gibson in the stomach with the muzzle of her shotgun.

Just for a moment, Dawn thought Gibson was going to fight back or do something equally stupid. But she needn’t have worried, with a look on her face like a kicked puppy, Gibson realised she’d been had and turned away from the guard and picked up a shovel before heading towards the ditch.

0=0=0=0

The prisoners were split into two gangs so that both sides of the road could be cleared at the same time. The sun was well above the horizon when a whistle was blown and everyone climbed out of the ditch to line up for a breakfast consisting of beans and cornbread. Sitting on the side of the road, Dawn shovelled spoonfuls of beans into her mouth and tore into the cornbread with her teeth. Mopping up the last smears of sauce from the beans with her last piece of bread, she looked up to see Boss Paula standing in front of her.

“Summers,” Boss Paula said quietly, “that Gibson girl a friend of yours?”

“No Boss,” Dawn replied honestly, “I totally never saw her before yesterday.”

“Well,” sighed the guard, “she’s your buddy now.”

Gesturing with the muzzle of her weapon, Boss Paula pointed to where Gibson lay flat on her back, her eyes closed and her beans and bread lying next to her on her plate untouched.

“Get her to eat,” Boss Paula ordered, “if’n she doesn’t she’ll never last the day.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” reluctantly, Dawn put down her plate, got up and walked over to where Gibson lay; she could really do without this, she had enough problems looking after herself without having to look out for someone else.

“Come on Blondie,” Dawn sighed as she knelt down next to Gibson; she picked up the girl’s plate and spoon, “you gotta eat.”

“Go way,” moaned Gibson.

“If you don’t eat, y’don’t crap and if y’don’t crap y'die,” Dawn pointed out with no great conviction, even if it was probably true.

“Let me die then,” Gibson threw her arm over her eyes and tried to ignore Dawn.

“Here,” Dawn looked up to see Ace kneeling on the other side of the blonde girl, “I’ll lift her up, you shovel it in.”

“Cool,” Dawn nodded and waited for Ace to lift Gibson’s head and body upright before she started to shovel beans into the woman slack mouth.

Slowly, Gibson started to chew and swallow; it was either that or be choked by the beans being forced into her mouth.

“Stick the bread in her pocket,” Ace suggested, “she can eat it later there’s no time now.”

Sure enough within seconds of forcing the last few beans into Gibson’s mouth the guards called for everyone to get back to work. Pulling Gibson to her feet, Dawn held the girl up while Ace took their three plates and washed them before coming back to help Dawn steer Gibson back into the ditch.

The work was back-breakingly hard, sweating under the hot sun, Dawn soon found herself wringing wet even after she’d taken off her denim shirt and was working only in her t-shirt. Every hour there was a five minute break which allowed the prisoners to slump down next to the ditch and catch their breath. While they worked a young girl called Babalu would run up and down the line of prisoners handing out mugs of water. To Dawn the girl didn’t look much older than about sixteen, by the way she spoke and acted she was almost certainly retarded. Wondering how the girl had ended up in prison, Dawn watched as she ran from prisoner to prisoner with her bucket of water.

The guards seemed to treat Babalu like some sort of pet; she fetched and carried for them and Dawn never saw any of the guards hit her or abuse her in anyway. Unlike what they were doing to Gibson, every time the exhausted woman slowed down, one of the bosses would be there to whack her across the back or butt with a cane. The pain of the cane stroke would wake Gibson up for awhile, but when the whistle blew for lunch break, Gibson just collapsed into the ditch and Dawn and Ace had to literally carry her out onto the road. Kneeling next to the worn out woman and not feeling too perky herself, Dawn found herself looking at a pair of boots belonging to a boss, looking up she saw Boss Paula looking down at her.

“Boss,” Dawn looked up at the woman, “you know as well as I do she won’t last the afternoon.”

Boss Paula said nothing and her face remained impassive, Dawn tried to reach her again.

“She’s not suited for this type of work,” Dawn pointed out, “even if she hadn’t spent the freakin’ night in the box she’d be dead on her feet by now.”

”What do you suggest then, Summers?” Boss Paula asked slowly.

“Couldn’t you put her in the back of the truck,” Dawn pleaded for the life of the girl she’d only just met even though it went against her better judgement.

Crouching down, Boss Paula felt Gibson’s pulse and pulled back her eyelids to check her responses.

“Okay, Summers, you’ve convinced me,” Boss Paula stood up slowly, “you an’ Ace get her into the back of the truck, ask Boss Shorty to lock her in.

“Thanks Boss,” Dawn smiled as she and Ace dragged Gibson to her feet.

“Don’t you thank me yet,” Boss Paula warned, “now git goin’ unless you wanna miss ya food.”

0=0=0=0

It was a long, hot afternoon as the sun slowly crept towards the western horizon; Dawn felt her hands burn, even through she was wearing thick work gloves, she knew she’d have a fine crop of blisters by the time they finished for the day. As the hours past her back became stiffer and stiffer as she heaved shovelfuls of dirt out of the ditch and onto the side of the road. Finding herself counting the minutes to the next rest break, Dawn hypnotised herself into a rhythm of lifting up a shovelful of dirt, tossing it out of the ditch before digging the point of her shovel back into the dark wet earth at the bottom of the ditch and starting the process all over again.

When the whistle finally blew for the end of the day, Dawn climbed from the bottom of the ditch feeling as stiff as a board and aching in places she didn’t know she had places. Dragging her feet she stumbled over to the pick-up and handed in her shovel and gloves before walking over to the truck. A whack on the butt from a cane helped her to climb into the truck. Shuffling down to the far end of the metal shelter she stepped over Gibson’s still sleeping body and collapsed into her corner. Arms resting limply by her side, Dawn closed her eyes and wondered if she’d live the week out.

“How was your first day on the job, College Girl,” Dragline sneered and all the old hands chuckled.

“That was nothing,” Dawn replied tiredly, “like a day at the beach.”

“Ya won’t last the week,” growled Dragline as the truck’s engine burst into life and they began their journey back to the compound.

“Bet ya she does,” Dawn recognised Koko’s voice.

“How much?” Dragline demanded.

“Two bucks,” Koko replied.

“Look,” Dawn opened her eyes and stared at Dragline, “when I was up in New York doing time, we did the same sorta stuff,” she lied, “only we did it in totally sub-zero temperatures, like in blizzards.”

The other prisoners laughed quietly at Dawn’s show of bravado. Looking sharply around the darkened interior of the truck, Dragline realised she was losing the support of the group to the new-meat who hadn’t even got a proper name yet; she was further discomforted when other inmates started to place their bets. About half put their money on Dawn surviving the week. With each bet placed in Dawn’s favour, Dragline felt her position as Top Girl slip from her fingers, she’d need to do something about the new-meat and do it soon.

As Dawn snoozed in her corner, she listened with half an ear as the betting on her survival increased to the point where Ace had to open an official book on the betting. Knowing that this was going to piss Dragline off in a big way, Dawn resigned herself to the fact that at some point she was going to have to fight Dragline over who was going to be ‘top girl’. She didn’t want to be ‘top girl’ it went against her plan of remaining unnoticed. Okay she’d be happy to be friends with whoever was ‘top girl’ but no way did she want that job. 

Although she’d made Dragline look small twice today, without really trying (Dragline didn’t appear to be that bright). Dawn was fairly sure she could come out of this with the respect of her fellow prisoners and without making a deadly enemy of Dragline. But not tonight, she was too tired. When they got back to the compound she intended to wash up, eat, shower and crash-out on her bunk, she didn’t have time for Dragline just yet and she was fairly sure that the women who’d bet on her would stop Dragline from messing with her.

Feeling the truck turn into the parking lot in front of the compound, Dawn opened her eyes and sat up. The truck jerked to a halt and a boss ran round and unlocked the gate to let the prisoners out. Jumping down from the back of the truck, Dawn followed the other inmates into the compound where they lined up on the concrete path that led to the cookhouse and barracks.

“Okay,” yelled one of the camp bosses, “you know the drill.”

Dawn didn’t but it soon became obvious that she was supposed to raise her hands above her head; they were going to be searched. A boss started from each end of the line working towards the centre; Dawn soon found herself being searched by one of the male bosses. He searched her quickly and efficiently, much to Dawn’s surprise he didn’t take the opportunity to cop a feel when his hands moved over her breasts or as he checked between her legs. Ace must have been right about what she said the previous night; the Captain didn’t like anyone messing with his girls. As she waited for the other women to be searched, Dawn couldn’t help but ask herself why?

After everyone had been searched, Dawn expected to be dismissed back to the barracks so she could wash-up before getting her evening meal. Instead they were told to about-turn, Dawn turned around with all the other prisoners and found herself facing the box. Glancing around she saw there were two guards behind the prisoners clutching their shotguns while another two stood over by the box with Boss Godfrey; Dawn just knew something bad was about to happen.

“Gibson,” Boss Paula called from where she stood next to Boss Godfrey, “front and centre.”

Slowly, hesitantly, Gibson walked out in front of the line of prisoners, she came to a halt about a yard in front of the three bosses by the box.

“You complained about the job you were given,” Boss Paula said loud enough for everyone to hear.

“No Boss,” Gibson cringed before the bosses, “I just asked to swap jobs is all.”

“Digging the ditch not good enough for you, huh?” Boss Paula wanted to know.

“No Boss,” Dawn could hear the panic in Gibson’s voice as the blonde realised she was going to be put in the box for another night.

“Oh,” Boss Paula laughed sardonically, “I think you think you’re too good for the likes of us…strip!”

“No Boss,” cried Gibson as she fell crying to her knees, “please, Boss don’t put me in the box again!”

Dawn shook her head, in less than two days the bosses had broken Gibson, after this she’d be like putty in their hands.

“You don’t want to go in the box again?” Boss Paula asked.

“No Boss, please Boss anything but that,” Gibson crouched on the floor as she looked up at the bosses with real fear in her eyes.

“Anything?” Boss Paula asked, Gibson nodded her head as her lank, sweat wet hair fell about her face.

Looking at Boss Godfrey, Boss Paula nodded and smiled, “She said anything…”

Reaching down and without saying a word, Boss Godfrey dragged Gibson to her feet. Within seconds Godfrey and the other guard were pulling an unresisting Gibson off behind on of the many huts scattered about compound. Thinking they were going to rape the woman Dawn stood stock still; she knew that if she so much as lifted a finger she’d find herself being dragged off behind a hut too. Closing her eyes, Dawn tried to block out Gibson’s screams and the sharp crack of canes hitting flesh. The beating seemed to go on and on until Gibson’s screams were replaced by the sound of her moans and sobs as the last few blows were landed.

Carrying the blonde girl between them, Boss Godfrey and the other boss dumped her on the dry grass in front of the hut. Very clever, Dawn had to admire the way these bastards worked. Taking the woman behind the hut to beat her was worse than doing it in front of the inmates; the unknown is always more frightening than the stuff you can see.

“Ace,” Boss Paula called out before she pointed her cane at Dawn, “new-meat! Get out here and clear up this trash,” she gestured to where Gibson lay unconscious on the ground.

Running over to the body, Dawn was just about to help Ace pick the girl up when she found the tip of Boss Paula’s cane under her chin.

“Listen up and listen up good,” Boss Paula whispered menacingly, “next time you ask for someone to be taken off a work detail, remember what happened to this sorry sack of shit.”

Before the week was out, Gibson was transferred to The Farm.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

No one who knew how stubborn Dawn could be would have been surprised when she survived the week. The bet had been that she got to midday on Saturday, without being put in the box or receiving a whipping and that at no point did she collapse other than at regular rest breaks. Not only did Dawn make it through to Saturday, she also felt herself getting stronger and more able to cope with what her life had turned into. Her body didn’t ache as much as it had after that first day in the ditch. When she got back to the compound in the afternoons she didn’t feel like she needed to crash-out the first chance she got; she did, however still wake up with the odd feeling that she’d only been asleep for a couple of hours. Remembering a story Buffy had told her about some weird demon eggs and how people got up in the night to work at digging up some monster, Dawn did worry for a while that there might be something ‘other-worldly’ going on. But, she saw no other evidence of it and eventually put it down to just being exhausted after a day spent digging.

Saturday was an easy day; as usual they got up just before the sun poked its nose over the horizon. But instead of going and digging out ditches, everyone was given an orange safety waistcoat and a rubbish sack and taken out to the interstate where they picked up trash from the side of the road. By midday they were back in the compound with no work to do until Monday morning. Saturday lunchtime was also the time they got paid, not a lot but enough to buy soap and shampoo, so Dawn didn’t have to use the harsh soap supplied by the Correctional Division. If she wanted she could also buy candy and other treats for herself, more importantly she could buy tampons, something that the Correctional Division didn’t supply. With her pay and the money she’d won by living out the week, Dawn now had cash burning a hole in her pocket; finding Ace playing one of her interminable games of solitaire, Dawn sat down across the table from her and suggested they play cards.

“You do know what you’re letting yourself in for, don’t you?” Ace asked as she did one of those neat one-handed shuffle things people did to impress the gullible.

“Hey!” Dawn took the cards from Ace’s hands and did her own shuffle thing, “I’m pretty good too…OH!” 

The cards flew out of Dawn’s hands and landed all over the table.

“Very good,” Ace looked at her with new respect, “I almost believed you did that by accident.”

“Yeah okay, you caught me,” Dawn grinned, “I hustle pool as well,” she explained, “you’d never believe how easy it is to win a game of pool if you leave a couple more buttons undone than maybe you should and don’t wear a bra.”

“Oh, I think I would,” Ace picked up her cards as Dawn dealt them…mostly from the top of the pack; this was, after all, a friendly game.

“So,” Dawn threw a nickel into the pot, “how do you think Dragline took me surviving the week?”

“Oh,” Ace threw in a couple of cards and took the replacements Dawn dealt her, “she hates you with a vengeance; you seem to have a knack for getting her pissed at you.” 

“On the plus side,” Dawn laid down her cards and picked up her winnings, “about half the women who bet won so she’s not going to do anything to get them pissed at her for messing with me, right?”

“Probably not,” Ace picked up the cards and dealt out the new hand, “but she’ll try to get you to lose your rag at her in front of the bosses.”

“I’m going to have to deal with her aren’t I?” Dawn picked up her cards and studied them, three Jacks, Ace had probably dealt herself something better so she didn’t raise.

“You mean fight her?” Ace asked; Dawn nodded as she took another card, “You think you can take her?”

“Probably,” Dawn decided to ‘see’ Ace’s hand, she’d been right her friend had four Queens.

“Look…” Ace passed the cards back to Dawn.

“And the ones you dropped into your lap,” Dawn interrupted with a smile.

“You are good,” Ace conceded as she handed over the wayward cards, “but like I was gonna say; come ‘round the back sometime an’ show me what you got…”

“I didn’t think you were into girl on girl action,” Dawn dealt the cards again.

“That was you,” Ace almost smiled when she picked up her cards, “I didn’t say one way or the other.” Money and cards crossed the table, “You see if I was to know the probable out-come of any fight between you and Dragline, we could turn a profit out of this…fifty-fifty?”

“Sixty-forty, to me,” Dawn corrected, “after all it’s me who has to fight her.”

“Okay, done,” Ace put down her cards and groaned as Dawn turned hers over.

“After supper behind the cook house?” Dawn suggested as she watched Ace set up the pack for the next hand; Dawn had to admit that had she not known what to look for she’d never have known Ace was cheating.

The card game went on through the afternoon as both women cheated each other into a kind of stalemate. Money changed hands but neither woman won or lost that much, after all they were both experts. As the game went on a small crowd of women gathered around the players. Unlike on the table, large amounts of money started to change hands as the inmates bet on the outcome of each hand, no one was stupid enough to actually join in with the game; not until Dragline came over.

With a false smile, Dragline sat down across from Dawn and Ace and asked if she could sit in. Shrugging Dawn agreed and dealt her in; giving a signal to Ace the two card sharps cut down on their moves and actually started to play like normal people. Unfortunately, Dragline had an over inflated opinion of her card playing skills and even without Ace or Dawn cheating started to lose and lose badly.

By the time it was getting towards dusk, Dawn and Ace had decided that the hand they were playing would be last for the day. Ace had folded, so it was just between Dawn and Dragline; Dawn had nothing, she’d looked at her cards once then just left them on the table; she kept raising the bet bluffing her opponent. Dragline obviously had a fair to middling hand and matched Dawn coin for coin. The betting in the crowd went up another couple of notches as the excitement grew. One of the guards, Boss Keen, came over to make sure the game didn’t get out of hand. Dawn kept on raising until Dragline had used up all the money in front of her and didn’t even have enough to ‘see’ Dawn’s cards. Frantically she tried to raise money from the audience but no one seemed willing to lend her any.

“If ya can’t raise the cash to see her cards,” Boss Keen pointed out with just a hint of warning in her voice, “ya gonna have to fold, Dragline.”

Looking at Dragline’s face, Dawn knew that if the boss hadn’t been there Dragline would have come across the table and be trying to beat the crap out of her right about now. But the presence of the boss with her shotgun and cane held Dragline in her seat. With an ill will Dragline turned over her cards.

“I fold,” she said quietly and turned her head away from the table.

Looking at the cards, Dawn sighed with relief. Dragline’d had a pretty good hand, two pair and reasonably high ones at that. Anyway it was good enough to beat what Dawn had got; one pair would have done it, she admitted to herself. Reaching across the table, Dawn started to collect her winnings; there must have been five or six dollars in the pot by the time the game was over.

“Lets see what you had, New-Meat,” Dragline demanded.

“You sure you want to do that?” Dawn asked keeping any hint of mocking out of her voice, if this did turn into a fight, she didn’t want Boss Keen beating on her.

“Yeah,” Dragline stood up slowly and the temperature around the table dropped a couple of degrees as did the noise level as everyone tensed.

“Okay,” Dawn shrugged and turned over her cards.

The amount of groans and surprised laughter around the table was about equal, but Dragline looked as if she was about to explode. Making a move towards Dawn she was brought up short when Boss Keen poked her in the chest with the muzzle of her shotgun.

“You calm down, Dragline,” Boss Keen told her, “she beat you fair an’ square. If’n you got a problem with that you can sort it out next week, ‘til then I’m gonna be keeping my eye on you.”

“Yes Boss,” Dragline said from between gritted teeth as she turned her back and walked away.

“Hey Summers,” Boss Keen called after Dawn as she was about to go back to her bunk, Dawn stopped and turned to face the boss.

“Yes Boss?” Dawn kept her face blank of any emotion.

“I said you beat her fair and square,” the boss rested her shotgun over her shoulder as she walked over to where Dawn stood, “is that right? I know I was watching an’ I didn’t see you cheat but I also saw you an’ Ace play earlier.”

“No cheating, Boss,” Dawn replied, “except when it was just me and Ace playing”

“What you an’ Ace do for fun is no business o’ mine unless it causes trouble,” Keen pointed out. “But cheatin’ causes trouble and trouble means you go in the box, you understand me?”

“Yes Boss,” Dawn nodded her head.

“Good,” Keen started to turn away, “you make sure you remember that.”

“I will, Boss, thank-you, Boss,” after watching Keen walk away, Dawn started to head towards her bunk again.

As she walked through the barracks one of the women who’d won money on Dawn’s playing ability slapped her on the shoulder and congratulated her on her victory.

“Cool hand, Dawn,” the woman laughed and Dawn got her new name.

0=0=0=0

Sitting on her bunk, Dawn counted out her winnings, she’d been right there was nearly six dollars in small coins on her bed.

“How much?” Ace asked.

“Five dollars and seventy three cents,” Dawn replied, “you know half of this is yours.”

“No way,” Ace sat cross legged on her bunk and watched Dawn arrange her money in neat little piles, “you won it fair and square…well mostly fair an’ square, it’s yours.”

“I was thinking,” Dawn looked over at her friend, “you wanna go into business?”

“What y’mean?” Ace sounded interested despite herself.

“Well,” Dawn shrugged, “we get on okay, we know we both cheat like hell. What you say that any scam we pull together we split fifty-fifty?”

Thinking hard Ace eyed Dawn trying to work out what her angle was.

“Does that include what ya got there?” Ace pointed at the money on Dawn’s bunk.

“Like I said,” Dawn gestured at the little piles of cash, “I reckon half of it’s yours anyway, what’d you say?”

“Can I give you my answer after I’ve seen you fight?” Ace wanted to know.

“Sure,” Dawn swept the money into her money jar, altered the amount on the piece of paper that she used to keep track of her finances, now she had some to keep track of.

After screwing on the lid she walked down the hut and gave it to the boss in the guard station who counted it and put it in the little pigeon hole with the rest of her valuables. Just then the bell rang for supper and Ace and Dawn made their way over to the cook house. Once supper was finished, the two women went off behind a hut, the evening air was cool as the sun had gone down and there was a breeze blowing in through the trees around the compound.

“Okay,” Ace said, “let’s see what you got.”

“Right,” Dawn brought her arms up to protect her chest and head while she bounced lightly on her feet. “You ready?”

“Uh-huh,” Ace nodded and sort of went into a crouch.

“You sure?” Dawn asked concerned that her friend wouldn’t be able to defend herself.

“Get on with it, Summers,” Ace brought up her fists, which was what Dawn had been waiting for.

Striking at her friend, Dawn dummied towards her head, as Ace moved to parry the expected blow, Dawn swept her legs from underneath her and Ace fell to the sandy ground with a surprised yelp.

“You okay,” Dawn frowned and held out her hand to help Ace up.

“Yeah sure,” Ace reached out and took Dawn’s hand; instead of allowing herself to be pulled to her feet, she pulled on Dawn’s arm hoping to unbalance her and bring her to the ground.

Instead of taking Dawn by surprise, she found herself underneath Dawn who had her arm wrapped around her neck. Feeling the world start to slip away from her as the sleeper hold started to take effect: Ace thumped the ground in submission.

“You’re one sneaky bitch,” Ace rubbed her neck after Dawn had let her get up, “where’d you learn that.”

“My sister was a wicked martial artist, you know?” Dawn replied.

“You learnt how to fight from your sister?” Ace said in surprise.

“Yeah,” Dawn nodded as she thought back to the few happy times she remembered from Sunnydale, “I used to totally watch her train and I sorta picked things up and then there’s the stuff I learnt out on the streets.” Dawn smiled, “I mean a girl’s gotta know how to defend herself.”

“I’m with you there, sister,” Ace sat with her back resting against the hut.

“So what do you think?” Dawn sat down on the ground next to her friend, “Can I take Dragline if I need to?”

“Oh, you’ll need to,” Ace shook her head sadly, “it’s gotta happen. You may not have wanted it to turn out this way but the gang is splitting into two factions, whether you like it or not, yours an’ Dragline’s.”

“Crap,” Dawn sighed as she threw a small stone into the dust, “didn’t want that.”

“Whatever,” Ace shrugged, “Dragline maybe bigger and heavier than you, but you look lighter on ya feet so as long as she don’t getta hold of ya you should be able to wear her down…” Ace grinned at her in the growing dark, “…we’ll make a fortune!”

“Partners?” Dawn held out her hand to Ace as the two young women got up.

“Why not!” Ace took hold of her hand and shook it firmly. “Come on we better get goin’, it’ll soon be time for first bell.”

0=0=0=0

On Sunday morning the prisoners were allowed to sleep in until eight o’clock. After breakfast the inmates spent their time washing and repairing their clothes plus any minor chores that needed doing around the barracks. At eleven o’clock a preacher came from a nearby town and held a service behind the cookhouse. All prisoners were expected to attend whatever religion they might or might not claim to be. Dawn didn’t mind, she wasn’t particularly religious but she enjoyed the singing. After the service there was Sunday lunch, a proper sit down meal with real meat and vegetables. In the afternoon, the bosses opened up one of the little huts which contained some sports gear and the women spent the afternoon playing baseball or volley ball.

Sitting in the sun half watching the game of baseball going on in front of the barracks, Dawn noticed a prison van pull up on the parking lot in front of the compound.

“New-meat,” Dawn nudged Ace and pointed as a young woman with dark hair climbed from the back of the van and stood blinking in the bright afternoon sun.

They watched as the Captain came out and gave his little speech, after which the new-meat was marched into the compound and handed over to Carla who did her famous ‘Prison 101’ lecture, like she must have done hundreds of times before. Once the new girl had been left to get herself squared away, Dawn and Ace made themselves known.

“Hi,” Ace said as the approached the new girl, “I’m Becky Kartalian, people call me Ace,” She gestured at Dawn, “this sorry excuse for a woman is Dawn Summers better known as Cool Hand.”

“Hi, y’all,” replied the dark haired girl in a real Southern Belle type accent, “I’m Emma Black, people mostly call me ‘Society’ coz I speak so nice.”

“They do?” Dawn frowned before remembering her manners, “How long you get?”

“Two years for prostitution an’ blackmail,” Society smiled, “y’all?”

“Two years for ‘malicious damage’,” admitted Dawn.

“Same for being too good at cards,” added Ace with a shrug.

“So, you been inside before?” Dawn climbed up on her bunk and watched as Society cleared her stuff away into her locker.

“Oh honey,” Society laughed lightly, “I’ve already done six months, I’m a transfer.”

“Where from?” Ace asked as she leant against her bunk.

“Place out near Springfield,” Society explained, “I tried to blackmail the chief warder…yuh know he never could keep his hands off little old Society’s butt so I tried to turn a profit from it.”

“So what happened?” Ace asked.

“Didn’t work,” Society shrugged resignedly, “how was I ta know he’d confess everything to his pastor? Anyway I got caught and sent here as punishment. Could have been worse I might have got time added.”

“I’d totally reserve judgement on that if I were you,” Dawn laughed.

“Why what’s wrong with the place,” Society whispered, “y’all looked happy as clams playin’ baseball an’all. What’s wrong, are the guards that bad?”

“In their own special way,” Dawn agreed, “but no worse than other places.”

“Not your first time?” Society looked up at Dawn.

“No, I did time up in New York a few years back,” Dawn explained.

“So,” Society crossed her arms under her ample bust, “what’s wrong with this place? What goes on here?”

Glancing at each other Dawn and Ace shared a look; eventually Dawn turned her head to face Society.

“Do you like digging?” Dawn asked.

“No,” Society replied shaking her head.

“You’re gonna hate it here,” Ace informed her.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

The feud with Dragline came to head on the Thursday of the week following Society’s arrival. The work on the ditch they’d been clearing had progressed along the road until they were now just outside a small, lonely farm. As some of the women worked, heaving shovelfuls of wet earth out onto the side of the road, others collected the spoil and deposited it into the back of a truck. As the work gang came level with the farm a figure appeared out of the farmhouse and walked into the middle of the front yard.

As a relative newbie, Dawn always found herself working in the ditch; her chance at the easier jobs up on the road wouldn’t come for months yet. Watching from the trench she saw the indistinct figure turn into a well muscled young man as he came closer. Pausing as if to wipe the sweat from her brow, she stared in appreciation as the guy took off his shirt. Quickly getting back to work so that none of the bosses would notice her stopping and strike her with a cane; Dawn kept an eye on the young man as she bent to her work. Walking over to a collection of metal pipes set into the dry grass of the front yard, the young man jumped up and started to do chin-ups from a metal bar that was suspended between two concrete posts. Sighing with desire, Dawn watched out of the corner of her eye as the young-man’s muscles rippled across his back and his ass seemed to get tighter by the minute.

“You see that?” A voice whispered from further down the line of working women.

“I’ve got eyes don’t I?” Dragline replied in a harsh whisper, “How am I not going to see something that looks like that?”

The young man had stopped doing chin-ups and was now running on the spot.

“Oh man, oh man,” Koko gasped from further down the line, “will you look at that!”

Looking up as she heaved another shovelful of dirt up onto the road, Dawn did indeed look at ‘that’. Just for a moment she forgot where she was and stood to stare as the beautiful youth started to touch his toes making his shorts stretch tightly across his ass. A tap across her butt by Boss Higgins’ cane brought her back from the pleasant place she’d gone to.

“Sorry boss,” Dawn went back to her work.

“Oh man, I’m dying here,” Koko gasped from behind Dawn as the youth continued with his work out.

“Great ass,” Dawn commented just loud enough for the women either side of her to hear.

“Jackson honey come to mama,” Dragline breathed huskily. “Dear Lord,” she looked heavenward, “whatever I done, please don’t strike me blind for another couple of minutes.”

Dawn laughed quietly at Dragline’s prayer as she cast her own furtive glances at the guy.

“Oh, Jackson…” Dragline moaned.

“Jackson?” Dawn asked, “Where did that come from?”

“Anything built like that has gotta be called Jackson,” Dragline pointed out lost in her lust filled daydream.

“Jackson was Dragline’s boyfriend before she got sent here,” Koko explained from behind Dawn, “to hear her talk he was some kinda Greek god!”

“He doesn’t know what he’s doin’,” called the woman in line behind Koko.

“He totally knows what he’s doing,” Dawn sighed, “he’s driving us crazy and loving every minute of it.”

“Don’t you talk about my Jackson like that,” Dragline muttered threateningly.

Eventually the youth went back into the farm house leaving the women in the ditch to their overheated fantasies.

“Pick it up there,” ordered Boss Higgins as he walked down the line of workers encouraging the slower ones with a tap of his cane.

Digging her shovel into the damp earth at the bottom of the ditch, Dawn wondered at her reactions. If this was how she felt after less than two weeks without seeing a guy, other than the bosses (and they didn’t really count) what was she going to feel like after two years? Jerked out of her reverie by Higgins’ cane landing across her shoulders, she got back to work.

“Sorry Boss,” she called to the guard’s retreating back.

The day passed without further incident until it was time to board the trucks back to the compound. All the way back, Dragline kept going on about what she and her boyfriend Jackson used to do in bed, and what she’d like to do with the guy they’d seen today. At first Dawn had laughed along with everyone else, but by the time the truck pulled into the parking lot in front of the compound, Dragline’s lewd observations were starting to wear a little thin, at least to Dawn they were.

After the evening meal, Dawn, Ace and Society were in the shower together sharing a shower head and the tepid water that gushed from it as they cleaned themselves up. Noticing the cane welts on Society’s back and buttocks Dawn gave a low whistle.

“What did you do to deserve that?” Dawn asked in concern.

“Don’t rightly know,” Society replied and winced as she ran her hand across her butt.

“It’s ‘cause you’re new-meat,” Ace informed both her of friends, “Bosses like to beat on new-meat to show ‘em who’s in charge. Give it a week or two and they’ll let up.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Dawn asked as she washed Society’s back careful to avoid causing her anymore pain than could be helped.

“Oh, I’ll survive,” Society sighed as Dawn rubbed her soapy hand over the woman’s back, “What makes me so pissed is I’m not getting paid for it.”

“You what?” Dawn paused in her washing.

“Listen, honey,” Society turned and started to wash Dawn’s back as she explained, “in my old job, if anyone wanted to do that to me, they’d have to pay extra!”

“You let people beat on you?” Dawn said in surprise.

“Only if they paid, honey,” Society replied, “only if they paid.”

“Hey, Dawn,” Ace grinned as both her friends started on her back, “for someone who’s been on the road since they were fifteen you can be real naïve!"

“What can I say?” Dawn smiled, “I’m just a perpetual innocent!”

0=0=0=0

It was after lights out when Dawn finally lost her temper with Dragline. The woman hadn’t shut up about her and ‘Jackson’ all evening. It was like a constant buzzing in the background like a florescent tube that needed replacing, or, a CD that kept repeating the same words over and over again.

“Jackson,” Dragline whispered just loud enough for Dawn to hear. “Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson,” she chanted under her breath as the other inmates shifted uneasily in their beds.

It was bad enough that Dragline was reminding them all of what they were missing out on by being in prison. But, she was also keeping them awake after a long hard day digging ditches and everyone needed their sleep. Lying in her bunk, Dawn stared up at the dimly seen roof above her head and wondered if Dragline would ever shut up and let them get some sleep. To make matters worse, Dragline wasn’t actually talking that loudly so Carla would have an excuse to get one of the bosses to throw her in the box for talking instead of sleeping. No, Dragline was too clever for that, she didn’t need to talk loudly her whispers somehow carried from one end of the hut to the other.

“Oh man,” Dragline chuckled as she rolled onto her back, “that cute Jackson. He was really a _big_ boy, wasn’t he?” Dragline chuckled again, her voice full of desire, “Did you see how he was just about to pop out of those shorts?”

“Like, give it a rest, Dragline,” Dawn called softly from her bunk.

“He’s likely to catch cold running round like that,” Dragline ignored Dawn and carried on with her fantasy, “without old Dragline to keep him warm at night.” Again Dragline chuckled to herself, “I do believe I saw one of those seams start to bust loose as it stretched so tight across his butt…”

“Forget it slut,” Dawn said levelly having had just about enough of Dragline’s waking wet dream.

“What do you mean, forget it?” There was a definite hint of menace in Dragline’s voice.

“Stop frigging yourself off,” Dawn snapped, “and let everyone get some sleep; you’re not doing anybody any favours here.”

“Okay new-meat,” Dragline really sounded pissed now, “you get some sleep and save your strength ‘cause you’re gonna need it…on Saturday.”

“Whatever,” Dawn sighed in a tone of voice calculated to piss Dragline off even more; if Dawn could bait the older woman into attacking her now, Dragline would spend the rest of the night in the box.

However, Dragline wasn’t completely stupid and didn’t react to Dawn’s taunt, she just rolled over and closed her eyes and went to sleep; no doubt dreaming of what she’d do to Dawn on Saturday afternoon.

0=0=0=0

One of the ways the bosses had of controlling the inmates was to let them fight on a Saturday afternoon. Any woman who held a grudge against another could challenge her to a fight and settle their differences quickly. This prevented any animosity between them from festering and boiling over into real trouble which might require the bosses to take action. By the time Saturday afternoon rolled around betting on the fight had become so heavy and widespread that even the bosses had been putting money on the outcome. Much to her disgust, Dawn discovered that the ‘clever’ money was on Dragline to win; she could see how people would think that way. Dragline was more heavily built and looked stronger than Dawn, she was also taller by two or three inches giving her a slightly longer reach.

By comparison, Dawn was slim and soft looking, however she was quick on her feet and no one had actually seen her fight other than Ace. When she was a young girl, or at least this was what the memories the monks had given her said; she would hide and watch Buffy train. Sneaking off to her bedroom later she’d try out the moves she’d seen her sister use. Many a bedside lamp or china knick-knack had fallen foul to a wildly aimed kick; Dawn had also gone to ballet classes and taken a passing interest in gymnastics. Things she’d learnt in these classes had helped her perfect her own special style of fighting. It was only after she’d runaway and was living on her wits that she’d had to start using these self-taught skills to protect herself. By the time she’d been arrested for the second time, Dawn was an accomplished street-fighter capable of using her fists, feet or a knife. She was also deceptively strong and fast which meant that Dragline would probably underestimate her abilities and was therefore in for a nasty surprise.

“You ready for this,” Ace asked as she massaged Dawn’s shoulders before the fight started.

Sitting on the steps of the cookhouse Ace, Society and Dawn watched Dragline and her supporters get ready over by the barracks.

“Yeah I’m ready,” Dawn nodded.

“Hey, honey,” Society spoke up from beside her, “yuh know this ain’t no hair pullin’, eye scratching contest? She,” Society gestured to Dragline, “is fixin’ to beat yuh into a bloody pulp an’ stomp on the remains.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dawn nodded her head, “have some faith, will you? I haven’t pulled hair in a fight since forth grade…you’ve both bet on me to win right?”

Ace stopped massaging her shoulders for a moment, “Sort of,” she admitted.

“Weeell,” Society at least had the decency to look embarrassed, “not as such.”

“What?” Dawn looked at her two so-called friends in disgust, “Come on guys,” she pleaded, “I am so going to totally whip that bitch’s ass, where’s your confidence?”

“It’s with the three bucks I placed on Dragline to win,” Ace admitted.

“Hey,” Society nudged Dawn’s arm, “I put a whole dollar on yuh to win…and two on Dragline…” 

Dawn looked at Society feeling really hurt by her lack of confidence in her fighting abilities, she was so annoyed that she nearly blurted out that she’d once staked a vampire all by herself but luckily she managed to stop the words leaving her mouth.

“I’ll show you,” Dawn’s jaw set in a determined line, “how much money have I got, Ace?”

“Six dollars plus change,” Ace replied.

“Put it all on me to win,” Dawn told her.

“You sure?” Ace asked hesitantly.

“Of course I’m freakin’ sure!” Dawn snapped back.

“Okay,” Ace put her hands up defensively, “don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

“Fighter and seconds!” Boss Paula called from the area of grass where the fight would take place; she and Boss Keen were there to ensure fair play and make sure things didn’t get out of hand.

“Okay,” Dawn stood up followed by Society who was going to be her second, “let’s do this.”

Walking towards Boss Paula, Dawn could see the eager looks on the other inmate’s faces, if they were expecting to see her get stomped into the ground they were going to be very disappointed.

“Okay you two,” Boss Paula called Dawn and Dragline to the centre of the fighting area, “Right,” Boss Paula looked from Dawn to Dragline, “we can stop this right here if you want. Just shake hands and go back to your bunks no harm done.”

“No way,” Dragline growled, “I’m gonna teach this bitch-new-meat a lesson.”

Boss Paula looked at Dawn and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m cool,” Dawn replied lightly, “lets totally get on with it, huh?”

“Okay if that’s how you both want it,” Boss Paula paused giving both fighters a last chance to back out, neither of them took it. “Fair enough,” she shrugged her shoulders, “these are the rules; there will be no rounds, you keep fighting until one of you goes down and doesn’t get up again or I say stop. If at any point I say stop, you stop and go and stand by your second and stay there until I say otherwise.” The Boss took a breath, “There are no boots, no eye gouging and no broken bones. My word is law, either one of you disobeys my orders and it’s a night in the box, okay?”

“Okay,” Dawn nodded her head.

“Can’t wait,” Dragline grinned convinced she was going to win.

Going back to their seconds the two fighters kicked off their boots and held out their hands so their seconds could slip lightly padded gloves onto their hands. After a few more moments, Boss Paula called them back to the centre of the fighting area and inspected their gloves. Once she was satisfied that everything was in order, she stepped back and ordered the two women to start fighting.

Circling each other, Dawn and Dragline made probing jabs testing out each others reactions. As they danced around on the grass the crowd called out helpful and bloody advice, they wanted to see blood and they wanted to see it now.

Feeling out her opponent, Dawn decided that Dragline was actually slower than she’d thought. As she ducked and danced away from the punches Dragline aimed at her head, Dawn kept her arms up to protect her chest and head. Stepping into Dragline’s guard, she jabbed at her face and connected, but only lightly. The weak blow had the desired effect, Dragline smiled down at her as if to say, ‘is that the best you’ve got?’ Aiming at Dawn’s head, Dragline swung her arm in a great haymaker of a punch that would have knocked Dawn out cold had it landed.

Ducking under Dragline’s outstretched arm, Dawn punched her twice in the belly drawing a surprised *OOMPH!* from the bigger woman. However, just before Dawn could dance away out of range, Dragline’s left came up out of nowhere and caught Dawn on the chin. Finding herself lying on the ground, Dawn spat blood from a cut lip onto the dusty grass. Looking up she saw Dragline coming for her so she could pummel her as she tried to get up. Foolishly Dragline planted her feet between Dawn’s legs. Scissoring her legs together, Dawn caught Dragline’s ankles with one foot and kicked her behind the knees with the other. Losing her balance, Dragline crashed to the floor as Dawn rolled to her feet, turning like lightning Dawn kicked Dragline in the ribs, hard.

Unfortunately, Dragline was big and strong and she absorbed the hits until she could get up. Retreating out of range, Dawn wiped at her lip, looking at the blood on her arm she dismissed the injury and closed in on Dragline again. Dancing around her opponent, Dawn jabbed at her and then backed off as Dragline tried to retaliate. When she attacked, Dawn would punish her with precise strikes aimed at Dragline’s elbows or kicks to her legs causing her to stagger and fall to her knees on several occasions.

The screams of hate and encouragement from the crowd were deafeningly loud in Dawn’s ears, so loud in fact that they distracted her for a moment and allowed Dragline to close with her. Seeing the larger woman coming at her, Dawn dropped her right shoulder at the last minute and buried it in Dragline's stomach. The woman, carried forward by her own momentum, found herself bending over Dawn’s back. Heaving upwards, Dawn sent Dragline flying over her back to land in a cloud of dust at the crowd’s feet. Spinning on the balls of her feet, Dawn aimed a side kick at Dragline’s jaw; her foot connected sending Dragline rolling further into the crowd; if she’d been wearing boots, Dragline would have been dead within moments.

“STOP!” Boss Paula shouted her voice silencing the baying crowd.

Walking over to Dawn and pulling her to one side she bent to speak in her ear.

“Okay, Cool Hand,” Boss Paula kept one eye on Dragline as she spoke softly to Dawn so no one else could hear, “You know if you kill her you’re in here for life, right?”

Dawn nodded her head.

“Okay, I don’t know where you learnt to fight but its obvious you’ve been trained,” Boss Paula continued, “now stop playing with her and lets get this over with.”

Retreating out of the way, Boss Paula called for the fight to recommence. Okay, Dawn thought as she moved around Dragline just out of range of the other woman’s fists. The Boss wanted this over with and Dragline alive. Never one to disappoint an audience, Dawn moved in for the kill. It took only another two or three minutes to reduce Dragline to a bleeding, crawling, whimpering wreck; Dawn didn’t enjoy it but it had to be done. If she didn’t beat Dragline and beat her in such a way that she’d never try to cross her again, she’d just find herself doing it all over again in a couple of months time. If this had been a street or gang fight, Dragline would have been dead about thirty seconds after the fight had started. Knowing just which nerves to hit, Dawn would have had her opponent helpless and unable to defend herself against the killing blow.

But Dawn wasn’t allowed to kill, not something she enjoyed, but she didn’t really enjoy slowly beating someone into helplessness either, but it had to be done. Eventually, Dragline went down and didn’t get up again. Boss Paula called another halt and went over to examine Dragline, she was out cold but still breathing. Proclaiming Dawn the winner, she warned against any attempts at payback against Dawn or her friends. After getting a few of Dragline’s friends to carry her back to the barracks and look after her, Boss Paula left. Sitting on the grass, Dawn let Society pull her gloves off, while Ace sat down next to her and started to count out their winnings. 

“I thought you said you bet on Dragline to win,” Dawn gasped as she worked some feeling back into her numbed hands.

“Oh, we did,” Ace grinned, “but we also bet on you.”

“Bastards,” Dawn didn’t know whether to be pissed at her friends or laugh at them.

“Hey, honey,” Society started to massage Dawn’s hands and arms, “wouldn’t yuh? I mean look at her an’ look at yuh.”

“That was before the fight,” Ace pointed out, “now we have every confidence in you…” Ace paused for a moment before asking, “How do you feel about fighting on a regular basis, we’d make a fortune!”

“Fuck you,” Dawn gasped and fell onto her back exhausted.

“If only, honey,” Society replied sadly, “if only.”

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

Time, as it inevitably does, passes by. Everyday was the same; up before dawn then out on the road digging out some ditch somewhere. The work was hard and the hours long; the food was boring but at least there was plenty of it and there was always a bed for Dawn to lay her head. When she’d been on the road, after not being able to find jobs waitressing, she’d often been hungry and found herself sleeping under a piece of cardboard in the shelter of a highway bridge.

Eventually the bosses stopped beating on her, they had Society to beat on now; Dawn felt guilty about that, her friend being beaten instead of her, but there was nothing she could do about it except learn to live with it. However, Society was soon let off the hook when a couple of women were released, their sentences being served and some new-meat turned up. Eagerly the bosses turned their attention from Society and onto them. Boss Paula was the most vicious of the bosses, she’d beat a prisoner for looking at her funny, sometimes she’d beat on a women for no reason that Dawn could see. Other times she’d be as nice as you please, it was all very confusing which was probably the effect Boss Paula wanted.

The other boss to look out for was Boss Godfrey; Dawn could never remember hearing him speak. When she’d asked the other women they’d all said the same, Boss Godfrey had never said a word and he’d never taken off those sinister mirror shades. At least he’d never been seen to do so in front of an inmate. He also had a habit of just appearing behind a woman as if he’d just materialised there. Once, Dawn had been slacking off, she was having her period and she’d had bad stomach cramps. Taking a breather she’d stood up and had been looking around. Seeing no bosses anywhere near her she’d leant against her shovel to take a rest. The next thing she knew, Boss Godfrey was behind her and he was beating her on her back with his cane. He didn’t stop hitting her until she’d started to dig again; for the rest of the day, Boss Godfrey always seemed to be there watching her, waiting for any excuse to move in and use his cane. If she slacked off even a little he’d be there and she’d feel his cane slashing across her back; Dawn never once heard him coming. One moment he’d be at the other end of the work line, the next he’d be there beating on her until she picked it up again.

0=0=0=0

“Will yuh look at those hands,” Society held out her hands for Dawn’s and Ace’s inspection.

It was the midday break and the three women were sitting on the side of a country road talking having eaten there beans and corn bread.

“What about them?” Ace looked at Society’s hands; they were like her own, rough, callused and generally maltreated.

“Well, honey,” Society looked at Ace as if she was simple, “if yuh was a fella would yuh want those hands anywhere near yore dick?”

Both Ace and Dawn laughed out loud.

“Hands are important in my line of work…” Society began to explain but Dawn interrupted her.

“I though something else was more important,” Dawn said with a grin, “as long as you don’t get calluses on that I don’t see…”

“Just goes to show what yuh know, honey,” Society explained, “I wasn’t any ordinary street hooker y’know I was…”

Just then all three women turned to see Boss Godfrey standing in the middle of the road about five or six yards away, he was holding his cane in one hand above his head.

“Don’t he remind you of that fella in that Stephen King book?” Ace whispered.

“You mean ‘The Walking Man’ from ‘The Stand’?” Dawn asked quietly.

“That’s the one,” Ace nodded.

“What the hell are yuh two talkin’ about?” Society frowned at her friends.

“Explain to you later,” Dawn replied and then turned at the sound of running feet.

Running up to Boss Godfrey, Babalu handed him a rifle. Without saying a word the boss took the weapon from the teenager, he pulled the bolt from where he kept it tucked into his pistol belt and replaced it in the rifle’s breach. Next he took a bullet from a loop next to his pistol holster, put it into the rifle’s breach and closed the bolt. In one fluid motion he put the rifle to his shoulder, pointed it up into the sky and fired. A bird that’d been hovering over the field next to the road plummeted to the ground. Squeaking with joy, Babalu raced off over the field and collected up the dead bird and brought it back to show Boss Godfrey.

“Don’t that man ever speak?” Society asked as Babalu trotted back to the boss’s pickup with the rifle; now once again minus its bolt.

“I think he just did,” Dawn pointed out.

All too soon it was time to get back to work. As she bent over her shovel, Dawn tried to keep her eye on Boss Godfrey, every time she heaved a shovelful of earth out onto the road side she watched where he was. First she’d see him standing at the far end of the work line. The next time she looked up he’d be standing somewhere else or beating on some unsuspecting woman’s back not too far away. Kneeling down to remove a rock, Dawn lost sight of the boss, when she stood up to hoist it out of the ditch she found his boots standing right in front of her face. Looking up into that impassive face, Dawn once again got the feeling that if she looked behind those glasses she’d find nothing but deep black holes.

“Problem here?” Boss Paula walked over to stand beside the other boss.

Boss Godfrey, turned his head and looked at Boss Paula and shook his head, the two bosses gave every appearance of communicating in some way but Dawn couldn’t workout how.

“Yeah,” Boss Paula replied to some unasked question, “I’ve been watching her too.”

Nodding his head, Boss Godfrey turned and walked away down the line of women occasionally taking a swipe at a buttock here or a back there.

“What are you looking at, Cool Hand?” Boss Paula asked coldly.

“Nothing, Boss,” Dawn replied quickly as she rapidly got back to work.

“Mind it stays that way,” Boss Paula snapped, “there’s been too much slacking off goin’ on ‘round here. If things don’t improve there’s gonna be trouble, you understand?”

“Yes, Boss,” Dawn dug down into the earth with a will, “I’m working Boss, I’m working.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Ace whispered from behind Dawn once Boss Paula had gone.

“Yeah,” Dawn agreed slowly, “it’s like they’re…” for a moment Dawn was lost for words, “It’s like they’re all acting like junkies who can’t get a fix, you know?”

“Yeah,” Ace looked around as she threw some earth out of the ditch, there were no bosses around so they were safe for a while, “an’ they’ve been beatin’ on people more than usual for no reason…OWWW!

Turning quickly, Dawn saw Boss Godfrey standing over Ace his cane raised ready to strike again.

“I’m sorry Boss!” Ace cried as she started to dig hoping not to be hit again.

Without saying a word, Boss Godfrey slowly turned and walked away.

0=0=0=0

Eventually the weekend came around, Saturday passed without incident and Sunday dawned bright and sunny, like every day seemed to in this part of the country. After Divine Service and dinner, Dawn headed off into a little area of shade under some trees behind the cook house. The place was cool and quiet, long, green, grass grew between the trees where it hid old pieces of machinery which had been abandoned and long forgotten. No one came out there much and Dawn knew she was fairly safe from prying eyes; she could hear the shouts and cheers as the rest of the prisoners played a particularly boisterous game of baseball out by the cookhouse. Most likely the bosses would be caught up watching it and not worry too much about one stray prisoner.

Leaning her back against a tree, Dawn slid down the trunk until she was sitting on the ground. Taking one last quick look around she unzipped her jeans and slid her left hand into her panties and down between her legs. Her right hand found its way under her t-shirt and she let her fingers start to tease her nipples as the fingers of her other hand gently stroked her clitoris. Sighing contentedly, Dawn started to feel the tension of the last week begin to slowly ebb from her body. Everyone seemed to be on edge…jittery even, Bosses and inmates alike; it was as if everyone was expecting something big to happen soon.

Pushing these unpleasant thoughts to one side, Dawn concentrated on pleasuring herself. Very soon she started to feel herself start to drift towards a climax. Smiling she imagined the last boyfriend she’d had before coming south; she remembered how they used to screw in the bed of their poky little apartment. Letting little sighs and mewing sounds escape her lips as her hips made circular motions as her excitement grew, she never heard the footsteps come up behind her. Gasping out loud, Dawn felt her climax wash over her as she squeezed her legs together and rubbed frantically at her clit with her hand. Breathing heavily she came then let her head rest against the tree as she caught her breath.

“Yuh finished now, honey?”

Surprised, Dawn looked up to see Society grinning down at her, she quickly pulled her hand from her panties and started to fumble with her zip.

“Oh don’t fuss y’self,” Society waved her hand dismissively, “it ain’t as if we ain’t all done it sometime, anyone who says they ain’t is a liar.”

“What do you want, Society?” Still a little flustered, Dawn climbed to her feet.

“Oh yeup,” Society smiled, “almost forgot in all the excitement…yuh’ve got a visitor.”

“A visitor?” Dawn stopped dead in her tracks; who could it be? No one knew she was here. “Who is it?” Dawn wanted to know.

“Boss didn’t say,” Society explained, “he just said find yuh an’ send yuh over ta the gate, come on.”

Following Society back around to the front of the cookhouse, Dawn looked over to the parking lot where there were a number of tables and benches set out so people could visit with the prisoners. Slowing to a halt, Dawn looked across at the little visitors area, she saw no one she recognised.

“Go on then,” Society urged her towards the boss who guarded the gate, “git goin’.”

Walking across the dry grass, Dawn came up to the boss who stood under a little shelter by the gate with his shotgun resting on his hip.

“Visitor, Boss,” Dawn said quietly.

“Over there, Cool Hand,” the boss gestured with his shotgun to an empty table as he unlocked the gate and let her out.

Walking towards the table, Dawn saw a short blonde woman step out of a car and start to walk towards the table. The two women stopped and stared at each other not saying a word until the short blonde gestured to the table and they both sat down.

“Well,” sighed Buffy, “why doesn’t it surprise me to find you here?”

“Nice to see you too,” Dawn whined and hated herself for sounding like the bratty, little sister she’d been years ago.

Looking at her sister, Dawn saw a woman who was older and more careworn than she remembered. There was a scar on Buffy’s top lip that seemed to pull her mouth into a permanent sneer.

“Do you realise just how much trouble you caused running off like that?” Buffy wanted to know.

“I’m surprised you even noticed I’d gone,” Dawn shot back.

“Of course I noticed!” Buffy almost shouted but managed to keep her voice under control, “You’re my sister, I love you.”

“Didn’t show it much did you?” Dawn accused, “Most of the time you couldn’t be bothered to admit that I even existed.”

“I was going through some stuff,” Buffy pointed out sharply, “you know? Remember? I’d just been yanked out of heaven by my so-called friends!”

“Don’t you blame Willow,” Dawn sprang to the defence of her old friend, “she didn’t know, we all thought you were in some hell dimension. How were we to know you were kicking back your heels on cloud nine practising your harp solo!” Dawn took a deep breath, “It’s not as if you wrote or anything…‘Hi guys, I’m doin’ fine don’t bother raising me from the dead’.”

“You could have dug me up first,” Buffy pointed out quietly, “you know how I have issues with coffins.”

“Sorry,” Dawn said with a sigh, “if they’d told me what they were going to do I might have said something.”

Both women studied the table top in silence for a moment.

“Did Willow and Tara get back together?” Dawn wanted to know; she still missed the two women who’d been more like her family than her sister had been.

“Tara’s dead,” Buffy announced bluntly.

“Oh no!” Dawn gasped, “How?”

“Warren Mears shot her after Willow and her got back together,” Buffy explained, “Willow went off the deep end and killed him.”

“Understandable,” Dawn replied tonelessly, “What happened to Willow?”

“Oh, she’s fine now,” Buffy gave a small smile, “she’s living in England with her new girlfriend.”

“Giles? Xander? Anya?” Dawn wanted to know.

“Giles is in England,” Buffy sighed sadly, “Xander went to Africa to do charity work after Anya died.”

“Anya’s dead?”

“High school fell on her when Sunnydale slid into hell,” Buffy explained succinctly.

“A bit Wizard of Oz-ish,” Dawn commented, “and she so wasn’t a witch or even that wicked.”

“Not thought of it like that,” Buffy admitted, “so what have you been doing?”

“This and that,” Dawn started to explain, “bit of waitressing, I learnt how to play cards and pool. I was making a decent living at it too until I came down here.”

“What happened?” Buffy reached her hand across the table to touch Dawn’s.

“Stupid really,” Dawn laughed humourlessly, “I had a real good win at cards, made near five thousand dollars in one night.” Dawn looked her sister in the eye, “You know some people just shouldn’t play cards, y’know what I mean?”

“I think I do,” Buffy smiled.

“So, I go out to celebrate,” Dawn carried on with her tale of woe, “I drank one too many beers and the next thing I know I’m being arrested for cutting the heads off parking meters.”

“You what!?” Buffy asked astonished.

“I know, I know, it was stupid,” Dawn admitted, “I think I thought they were demons watching me or something.”

“So how long did you get?” Buffy asked quietly.

“Two years,” Dawn told her, “I’ve done nearly six months now, I’ll maybe get some time off for good behaviour so I should be out in time for my twenty-second birthday if I’m lucky.”

“If not?” Buffy prompted.

“I’ll just have to have my twenty-second birthday on my twenty-third,” Dawn smiled sadly, “be a hell of a party.”

“Is it bad here?” Buffy wanted to know.

“Not so much,” Dawn lied, at the moment things were strange around the compound but she didn’t want to worry her sister. “I get by, I have some friends…”

“Friends?” Buffy raised an eyebrow.

“There’s ‘Ace’ she’s a professional gambler, like me,” Dawn told her, “and ‘Society’ she was a high class hooker and blackmailer.”

“You sure know how to pick ‘em, Dawn,” Buffy smirked.

“Hey look,” Dawn sprang to the defence of her friends, “this is prison you know and they’re good friends to have, we look out for each other.”

“Are there things you need to look out for?” Buffy asked.

“Like I say,” Dawn repeated, “this is totally prison, you know?”

“I suppose you know best,” Buffy admitted.

“You what!?” Dawn nearly fell off her bench in surprise, “The great Buffy Summers admitting that her little sister knows best about something.”

“Well,” Buffy shrugged, “it’s a big hole in my education…I’ve never been sent to prison.”

“They nearly arrested you for murder a couple of times,” Dawn reminded her sister helpfully.

“Yeah, but they didn’t,” Buffy pointed out.

“And you got thrown out of school…”

“Dawn!” Buffy held up her hand to shut her sister up, “Being thrown out of school is hardly the same as doing time on a chain gang.”

“‘Spose not,” Dawn had to admit, “so what about you? Done anything interesting lately?”

“Oh,” Buffy sighed long and hard, “same old, same old,” she shook her head sadly, “you know, slaying, non-existent love life, nothing changes much.”

“Oh,” Dawn looked down to where Buffy’s hand held hers, “we’re both screw ups, Buffy. I wonder what mom would say if she could see us now?”

“Oh,” Buffy squeezed her sister’s hand gently, “I expect she’d be all exasperated for a while and then she’d smile in that way she had and put her arms around us and tell us everything will be fine…I still miss her…”

“Me too,” Dawn wiped at her eye, “I wonder what…”

“Don’t go there, Dawn,” Buffy advised, “that’s all in the past, we can’t change it. At least you can plan for a future, not like me.” Buffy plastered a smile on her face, “so, Dawnie what y’gonna do once you get out of the ‘joint’?”

“Don’t know for sure,” Dawn sniffed, “I’m not planning on going back to jail, like ever!”

“That’s good,” Buffy pointed out encouragingly.

“I thought I might go up to Washington State,” Dawn said, “I’ve never been up there before, I’ve heard it’s nice. Get a job, maybe find a guy and get married, have a load of kids and forget all about this.”

“I’d like that,” Buffy smiled wistfully; “I’d like to be Auntie Buffy.”

“Well,” Dawn smiled at her sister, “don’t hold your breath, I’m not out of here yet.”

“About that,” Buffy leant towards her sister, “I’m down here on a job, you know?” Dawn nodded her head, “Big nest of vamps down on the coast, but look…once I got them cleared out I can talk to some people who owe me favours.”

“People?” Dawn asked, “Favours?”

“You know,” Buffy shrugged, “a couple of congressmen, a General here an Admiral there, plus a few police chiefs and judges…”

“You have been going up in the world,” Dawn was impressed in spite of herself.

“We do what we can,” Buffy shrugged modestly, “I’m not going to promise anything but I might be able to get you out or moved to some place better than this.”

“You could?” Dawn asked hopefully.

“Like I say I’m not promising anything,” Buffy pointed out, “and it could take a few months, we’ll see.”

“Thanks, Buffy,” Dawn felt her eyes start to burn as the tears started to come again.

“Hey!” Buffy grinned, “You might be a pain in my ass but you’re still my sister.”

The two young women talked for another twenty minutes or so until a boss came and told them visiting time was over. The sisters hugged, despite the looks the boss gave them, before they parted. Dawn walked back towards the compound while Buffy headed for her car. At the gate Dawn paused and waved to her sister as she watched from behind the wheel of her hire car. After Buffy waved back she slowly drove away; Dawn never saw her sister again.

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

_“Get yourself a sweet Madonna,  
Dressed in rhinestones sitting on a’  
Pedestal of abalone shell.  
Going ninety, I ain’t scary,  
‘Cause I’ve got the Virgin Mary,  
Assuring me,  
That I won’t go to hell…”_

“Plastic Jesus”, Ed Rush and George Cromarty.

It was a dark and stormy night; lightning flashed, thunder boomed, the rain came down in biblical proportions and it was way too hot to sleep.

“I know they have ta close those thangs,” Society said referring to the shutters on the windows, “or we’ll all drown…but it sure is suffocating in here.”

Lying on her bunk, Dawn just stared at the ceiling and tried not to move. Like everyone else in the barracks she was dressed only in her panties but the sweat still oozed from every pour in her body. As she lay there she thought back to what Buffy had said about getting her out of prison or arranging for her to be moved to a better facility. However much she wanted to get out, she’d have to leave her friends behind, it would be like deserting them. There was nothing she could do if Buffy got her released but perhaps if she was moved maybe she could talk Buffy into getting her friends moved with her.

“…hell, I saw her eat ten chocolate bars,” Dragline’s voice drifted to Dawn’s ears from the far end of the barracks, “and seven sodas in fifteen minutes.”

The big woman was boasting about something she claimed to have seen another inmate do a couple of years previously.

“Hold on there, Dragline,” Koko sat up in her bed, “that’s just bullshit.”

“What’d mean ‘bullshit’?” Dragline replied without much in the way of annoyance, Koko was her friend after all, “You calling me a liar?”

“No,” Koko laughed, “you just have a way of stretching the truth is all.”

“Ho, ho, ho,” Dragline laughed slowly, “I tell you I seen it with my own two eyes.”

“I can eat thirty eggs,” Dawn announced before she even realised the words had come out of her mouth; the entire barracks went deathly silent the only sound being the rain drumming on the roof.

“No one can eat thirty eggs,” Dragline looked at Dawn in astonishment.

“You ever eat thirty eggs before?” Ace asked from her bunk next to Dawn’s.

“Like, no ones ever eaten thirty eggs in one go,” Dawn claimed with a certain amount of bravado.

“Hey!” Cried Koko, “Looks like we’ve got a bet here…Ace?”

“Okay,” Ace sat up on her bunk and gave Dawn a worried look, “I’ll open a book on it.”

“Look!” Society jumped up from her bunk under Dawn’s, “If’n my girl, Cool Hand, says she can eat thirty eggs,” Society glanced at Dawn, “she can eat thirty eggs!”

“Yeah, okay,” Dragline nodded her head slowly, “but in how long?”

“In an hour,” Dawn thought that sounded reasonable.

“Hell!” Dragline laughed and slapped her thigh, “I could eat thirty eggs in an hour, how about half-an-hour?”

“Forty-five minutes!” Ace countered quickly.

“Done!” Dragline slapped two, one dollar bills down on Ace’s bed, “I’ll take that wager!”

The women in the barracks started to chatter excitedly as money began to change hands and Ace called out the odds; it was about even between the women who thought Dawn could do it and those who didn’t.

“Hold on there,” Koko’s voice cut through the excited chatter, “one rule! No throwing up, if she throws up she loses.”

“Agreed!” Society shouted before Ace could say anything.

A little while later when everyone had calmed down and had mostly gone back to their bunks, Ace leaned across the gap between her and Dawn’s bunk.

“Hey, Cool Hand,” Ace whispered; Dawn turned her head to look at her friend, “thirty eggs, that gotta weigh three or four pounds. That could swell up inside you and split your stomach open. This could kill you.”

“Yeah, well,” Dawn sighed, “it’s something to do.” She smiled reassuringly at her friend, “Look, totally boil them for fifteen minutes and we’ll be a hell of a lot richer forty-five minutes after I start this thing.”

0=0=0=0

The egg eating competition was arranged for Saturday afternoon. Money was passed to Cookie who ran the cookhouse to buy eggs, while Dawn spent every spare minute she had training. Unfortunately none of her friends knew what was the best sort of training to do for an egg eating competition. After much argument and discussion, Dawn ended up doing laps around the compound and loads of sit-ups on her bunk. On Saturday morning she ate only a very small breakfast and had a laxative for lunch.

At just after three in the afternoon, Cookie handed over the last of the eggs swearing that she’d boiled them all for at least fifteen minutes. After receiving her payment she put most of it on Dawn failing to complete the bet. The prisoners huddled around the long table near the boss’s station and watched as Society and Ace started to peel Dawn’s eggs.

“Hey!” Dragline cried, “She’s gotta peel her own eggs that’s understood!”

“Now lookie here,” Society turned to face Dragline, “I’m Cool Hand’s trainer an’ what I say is the law.” There were mutterings of agreement from around the table, “An’ what I say the law is…she gets to have her eggs peeled.”

“Fair enough,” Dragline shrugged knowing when she was beaten.

The room went quiet as Dawn slowly walked down the line of bunks from up by her bed; dressed in only her panties and with a denim shirt around her shoulders she sat down at the head of the table. The room was still and all eyes were turned towards her in anticipation.

“Right,” Carla broke the silence, she was to be the official timer and judge, “the bet is that Cool Hand can eat thirty eggs in forty-five minutes. If she fails to finish all the eggs or throws up within the forty-five minutes she loses. Throwing up immediately after the forty-five minutes is up still means she’s won, okay?”

There were nodding heads and muttered ‘okays’ from all around the table. Raising her wrist Carla looked at her watch.

“Ready,” she called slowly, Ace picked up the first egg checked it for pieces of eggshell and held it ready for Dawn. “Set…” Carla studied the second hand on her watch closely before yelling “GO!”

Snatching the egg from Ace’s hand, Dawn put it in her mouth bit down on it once and swallowed. The first three or four eggs followed the first in rapid succession.

“Careful not to put your fingers too close to her mouth,” someone called, “or she’ll have those too!”

After fifteen eggs, Dawn started to slow down a little; she shifted her position from sitting up to the table to a sort of half reclining position with her head resting on the table in amongst the eggshells as Society presented eggs at her mouth. For just a moment, Dawn turned her head away as Society passed her another egg, she could feel the eggs moving around in her stomach and she felt just a little sick. Pulling herself upright she slowly stood up and shuffled over towards one of the sinks.

“She’s gonna throw up!” someone gasped excitedly.

Turning on the tap, Dawn bent down, sucked some water into her mouth and swilled it around before spitting it out again. Dabbing at her lips with the sleeve of her shirt she slowly walked back to the table and sat down; taking an egg from Society’s hand she slipped it into her mouth, bit it in half and swallowed.

After twenty-five eggs, Dawn lay on her back on the table and looked down at her distended belly, all those eggs had made her look pregnant. She certainly felt pregnant, all bloated and sick feeling, she began to wonder if she be able to eat those last five eggs. One thing she knew for sure was that she’d never eat another egg again in her life. Turning to look at Society, she nodded and her friend passed her egg number twenty-six.

“Four minutes to go,” Carla announced like the angel of doom.

Egg number twenty-seven slipped between Dawn’s lips, hesitated and then slid slowly down her throat to join its brethren in her stomach. A terrible gurgling, rumbling sound emanated from Dawn’s belly. Exchanging worried looks Ace and Society whispered words of encouragement into Dawn’s ears.

“Cool Hand,” Ace whispered urgently, “every cent in the camp is ridin’ on this, we got it all!”

“Look, Cool Hand,” Society glanced around at all the expectant faces watching them, “we’re gonna be in deep shit if yuh don’t win this!”

“I think we’re gonna be in deep shit anyway,” Dawn smiled greenly, “win or lose.”

One minute to go and Dawn was down to the last egg. Looking at it she saw it taking on the proportions of a basketball, there was no way she could swallow one more egg.

“Forty-five seconds,” Carla called.

“Oh god,” Dawn groaned as she opened her mouth.

Taking the last egg, Ace stuffed it into Dawn’s mouth and pushed her jaws closed. Swallowing that egg was possibly the hardest thing she’d ever done and that included the first time she’d given a guard a blow-job up in New York.

“TIME!” Cried Carla as the forty-five minutes came to an end.

Leaning over Dawn’s head Dragline checked inside her mouth to make sure the last egg was gone.

“It’s gone!” Dragline confirmed, oddly although she’d bet heavily against Dawn she didn’t sound too upset.

There was a great deal of shouting; cheers from the winners and groans from the losers. Lying flat on her back on the table, Dawn moaned softly as she wonder whether she could crawl to the toilets before she threw up. Opening her eyes she saw Dragline grinning down at her.

“Hey,” Dragline said just loud enough to be heard by Dawn over the noise of the yelling inmates, “ya not so bad, kid.”

“Don’t call me kid,” Dawn groaned just before she started to retch, “I-I think. I-I’m gonna…”

Lifting Dawn easily from the table, Dragline yelled at everyone to get out of the way as she carried her towards the washroom. Finding herself unceremoniously dumped in one of the stalls, Dawn crawled the last few inches towards the bowl, hung her head over the side and threw-up. There were gasps of ‘Phew!’ from everyone else in the barracks as Dawn violently emptied her stomach of its load of thirty eggs.

Later that night, Ace came to stand next to Dawn as she lay on her bunk moaning softly. Her stomach muscles felt like someone had been jumping up and down on them all day.

“We’re rich,” Ace told her quietly, “we’ve got every cent in the place…only a few people thought you could do it and were willing to put their money on you.” Ace said excitedly, “Now what I think we should do…”

“What **I** think you should do,” Dawn took hold of Ace’s shirt by the collar, “is next time I make a totally stupid claim like that, is to stuff a sock in my mouth and sit on me…” she looked pleadingly at her friend, “…okay?”

“Yeah,” Ace nodded and smiled, “socks and sitting, got it.”

“Now go away and let me die,” Dawn groaned, rolled onto her side and curled up in the foetal position and tried to go to sleep.

0=0=0=0

By the time Monday morning rolled around, Dawn was more or less human again; which was just as well because she was out on the road again with the rest of the gang digging out a ditch. The ditch digging had progressed along the road until they were in a better watered area with trees that shaded the women as they worked. Digging her spade into the dark, damp earth, Dawn listened to the crunch of the boss’s boots as they walked up and down the road watching the prisoners work. Every now and again there’d be a ‘swish’ as a cane cut through the air followed by a *Crack!* as it landed across a woman’s back or butt followed by her yelp of pain.

Just as Dawn was congratulating herself on not being beaten so far today, she heard a lot of panicked screaming from further down the ditch. Standing up, she looked around to see what was going on.

“Snake in the grass here, boss!” Dawn heard a woman cry as prisoners scrambled out of the ditch and bosses ran up and down the road trying to work out what was going on.

There sliding towards her along the ditch was a rattlesnake, its rattle sounding angrily as it moved. It’d probably been sunning itself until it’d been disturbed by the women and their digging, now it was angry and was looking for someone to bite. Holding her ground until the snake was in striking distance; Dawn reached out and grabbed the creature by its rattle. 

“Picking it up here, Boss!” Dawn called as she lifted it by its tail and held it at arms length out to her side.

Looking up onto the road, Dawn saw Boss Godfrey slide to a halt. He hauled his revolver from its holster aimed and fired blowing the snake’s head clean off from a range of about five or six yards.

“Hell!” Dawn laughed as she threw the dead snake up onto the road, “You sure can shoot, Boss.”

As usual Boss Godfrey said not a word; he just stood there looking at the snake as he reloaded his pistol. As he slipped his weapon back into its holster he glanced at Dawn. For a moment (Dawn was never quite sure whether she’d actually seen it) it could have just been the sun in her eyes; but she thought she saw him give just a glimmer of a smile. Perhaps, Dawn thought, he was human after all.

Working on into the afternoon, Dawn glanced up at the sky. Great black thunder clouds had rolled in over the last hour and the air was heavy with humidity. Hearing the crunch of a boss’s boot on the gravel of the road, she bent back to her work and heaved another shovel full of earth up onto the road to be cleared away by the women working up top. Looking up at the sky again she was rewarded by having a large drop of rain hit her in the eye. Knowing not to stop working for just one drop of rain she stuck her shovel into the earth again and kept on digging.

By the time the bosses yelled for everyone to take shelter in the trucks it was raining heavily and Dawn was already soaking wet, as was everyone else. Slowly she stuck the blade of her shovel into the wet earth and unhurriedly climbed out of the ditch which was rapidly filling with muddy rain water. Walking across the road towards the truck, Dawn looked up into the sky as thunder rumbled from cloud to cloud.

“WOW!” Dawn cried as a great peel of thunder rolled across the sky, “Listen to that! Get it on!”

“Hey knock it off, Cool Hand,” Dragline called from over by the truck, “You can’t talk to Him like that.”

“You still believe in that big, bearded boss in the sky?” Dawn turned to grin at Dragline as the rain plastered her hair to her head and soaked her to the skin. “You think he’s up there like, totally watching us?”

Dawn knew all about gods and how they were really just demons with an over-inflated opinion of themselves. 

“Get in here,” Dragline gestured towards the back of the truck as lightning split the sky in two and thunder boomed loud enough to make Dawn’s chest vibrate. “Ain’t ya scared of getting killed?”

“Hey Cool Hand!” Ace yelled from the back of the truck, “Git your ass in here right now!”

“Dying?” Dawn laughed up at the sky, “He can have this life anytime he wants; you hear that?” She called up at the clouds, “You’re welcome to it old timer,” she laughed knowing she’d nothing to fear, “Love me, hate me, kill me, lets see what you’ve got!”

The thunder rumbled ineffectually as the rain beat down on her head, she looked over to the truck and all the frightened faces watching her. Shaking her head Dawn started to walk slowly towards the truck.

“Just standing in the rain,” Dawn said to herself, “talking to myself.”

0=0=0=0

“Blind-Di is paying back three and borrowing five,” Society announced as Ace made a note in her notebook.

Having won just about all the money in the barracks, Dawn, Ace and Society had gone into the money lending business. Charging reasonable rates of interest and now there was something of a reconciliation between Dragline’s faction and Dawn’s faction, the business went from strength to strength. As usual by Wednesday night the inmates who’d bet against Dawn’s stomach capacity were short of funds and were looking to stretch their credit. The three friends were sitting around the big table by the boss’s station doing business.

“Next!” Society called as she handed the money to Blind-Di; Society looked up at the next customer, “Yuh borrowing or paying back, honey?”

“Borrowing,” Koko asked hesitantly, she grinned uncertainly at Dawn, “I just need five, Cool Hand.”

Looking over to where Dawn sat, Society raised a questioning eyebrow. Looking from Society to Koko, Dawn shrugged. The woman was Dragline’s friend lending to her was good business as it kept Dragline on side.

“Give it to her,” Dawn called just as Carla walked over and placed a sealed telegram envelope on the table in front of her.

“Sorry Cool Hand,” Carla said before she walked away.

The room went completely quiet as Dawn stared down at the official envelope; she didn’t need to open it to know what it was. There was only one reason people sent telegrams these days; she’d often wondered how it would happen, how she’d find out, now she’d know. Slowly she stood up and started to walk towards her bunk as every eye in the place watched her and the other inmates wondered what was going on. Reaching across the table, Ace picked up the envelope and opened it, opening out the piece of paper inside she read the few words printed there. Slowly she stood up and looked around as all heads turned towards her.

“Her sister’s dead,” Ace announced simply.

“Jesus,” gasped Society as she looked around to follow Dawn’s slow progress towards her bunk, “that’s all her folks gone now…she ain’t got no one no more.”

Climbing up on to her bunk, Dawn sat hunched up, her hands between her legs and her legs hanging over the side of her bed. So, she thought, this was it; she was the last of the Summers women, she was all alone now. When her mother had died they’d heard nothing from her father and as time past she’d sort of just assumed he was dead too. Thinking of her Mom and Dad brought back memories of when she was little (she didn’t give a damn whether these memories were real or fake, they felt real to her); she remembered sitting in the back of the car with Buffy when she’d been about five when her big sister had taught her a funny little song.

_“I don’t care if it rains or freezes,”_

Dawn sang quietly remembering those half forgotten car journeys with her sister.

_“As long as I’ve got my plastic Jesus,  
Sittin’ on the dashboard of my car.  
Comes in colours pink and pleasant,  
Glows in the dark ‘cause its iridescent  
Take it with you...”_

The words caught in her throat; Dawn stopped singing and sobbed quietly for a moment, swallowing hard she found her voice again,

_“...When you travel far.”_

Her voice got a little stronger as everyone watched her from the far end of the room, all wondering what it must feel like being the lonely, crying girl sitting by herself right now.

_“Get yourself a sweet Madonna,  
Dressed in rhinestones sitting on a’  
Pedestal of abalone shell..._

Once again Dawn found her voice had betrayed her, she sniffed and wiped away the tears that trickled down her face; taking a great shuddering breath she steadied herself before completing her sad little tribute to her sister.

_“Going ninety, I ain’t scary,  
‘Cause I’ve got the Virgin Mary,  
Assuring me,  
That I won’t go to hell…”_

0=0=0=0

High light and right click to follow the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG9tuuznL1Y&feature=fl_lolz&playnext=1&list=FLZQChkD5kKes


	8. Chapter 8

8.

It was the morning after Dawn had received the telegram that told her of Buffy’s death. Still feeling slightly numb she’d gone through the early morning routine as if she’d been some sort of automaton and now she was lining up with the rest of the inmates waiting to be let out of the camp and board the trucks to the work site. Standing in line with her friends, Dawn hardly noticed the gasp of surprise coming from the throats of the women around her. Something must have registered in her mind because she looked up to see Captain Stother walking across the parking lot towards the perimeter fence.

“Summers, fall-out,” Stother called as he approached the wire fence.

Turning to her right, Dawn stepped out of line and then turned to face the Captain. The little man stood with his hands on his hips; he looked Dawn up and down and sighed as he took his hat off and used it to fan his face.

“When a woman’s sister dies,” Captain Stother began, “she gets to thinkin’ about her funeral and payin’ respects; before she knows it her mind ain’t right.” Captain Stother paused for a moment as he considered his words, “She’s got rabbit in her blood and she runs.” Stother looked directly into Dawn’s eyes, “We’re keeping you off the road for a while.”

After nodding to one of the bosses standing behind Dawn, Stother turned and walked back to his little house. Standing there Dawn felt someone come up behind her and take her by the arm. Turning her head she saw Boss Henry, a rather fatherly Boss who hardly ever used his cane on any of the inmates. Holding her by the elbow he guided her towards where The Box stood with its door standing wide open and Boss Keen standing next to it with her shotgun resting on her hip.

“I’ll say a prayer for your sister, Cool Hand,” Boss Henry told her quietly.

They stopped in front of The Box and Dawn knew what she had to do, she’d seen enough inmates go through the same procedure. Slowly she stripped off her clothes until she stood naked in front of the box; she noticed that Boss Henry had averted his eyes so he wouldn’t see her body, Boss Keen however stood and leered at her nakedness. Placing his hand gently on the small of her back, Boss Henry urged her to step into the box.

“Sorry, Cool Hand,” Boss Henry sounded embarrassed as he placed the water bucket and slop bucket in the box with her, “I’m just doing my job; you’ve got to appreciate that.”

“Hey,” Dawn fought to control the tremor in her voice and turned away from the man so he wouldn’t see her tears, “Calling it your job doesn’t make it totally right, Boss.”

The door was closed and locked and Dawn was left to her memories of her sister in the cramped confines of the box. Slowly she sank to the hard stone floor and sobbed uncontrollably for several hours.

0=0=0=0

The bosses left Dawn in the box for the rest of the day; the following night and the next day when they let her go back to the barracks after telling her that her sister had been buried. The day after was a Saturday and Dawn had an easy day picking up trash on the freeway followed by the afternoon and all of Sunday to recover.

The foolish thing was that until the Captain had had her locked in the box Dawn hadn’t given escape a single thought; she’d been quite willing to serve out her time until her release date and leave the State of South Marianna forever. But the time she’d spent in the box allowed her to dwell on the possible fates that might have overtaken Buffy. By the time they let her out of the box on Friday evening she was determined to escape. The weekend just gave her time to pull a plan together.

0=0=0=0

Monday morning found the work gang digging out the ditches where the road passed through an area of trees and bush. Having told no one of her plans to run, Dawn tried to act as naturally as she could. Over the weekend she’d allowed her friends to try and comfort her and she had indeed drawn comfort from their concern for her welfare. But she found she felt detached from her friends, from reality even as she planned her escape. Heaving a shovel load of earth up onto the road, Dawn looked left and right; seeing Boss Keen standing a few yards away she called out to the boss.

“Caught short here Boss,” Dawn called and watched closely as Boss Keen turned to look at her.

“Okay,” Boss Keen sighed a little as she walked over to stand just in front of Dawn, “you go in those bushes yonder,” Boss Keen pointed with her shotgun to an area of bushes under the trees. “Don’t forget to shake them bushes so I know where you’re at now, Cool Hand.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Dawn smiled at the boss as she climbed out of the ditch and headed off towards the bushes.

Crouching down behind a bush, Dawn shook the bush with one hand and searched in the pocket of her jeans with the other. A week or two earlier she’d found a long length of string by the side of the road. Thinking it might be of some use, she’d gathered it up and put it in her pocket. When the bosses had searched her at the end of the day, the boss had found the string; looked at it, shrugged and let her keep it. After all it was only a length of string, right?

“Shake that bush, Cool Hand,” Boss Keen called warningly from over by the road.

“I’m shakin’ it, Boss, I’m shakin’ it!” Dawn called back giving the bush an extra hard shake as she tied the end of the string to the bush.

“What you doin’ in there girl?” Boss Keen shouted.

“Almost finished, Boss!” Dawn called back as she paid out the string and crawled off into the bush tugging on the string making the bush shake.

There was almost fifty feet of string and it took Boss Keen a little while to realise that the bush had stopped shaking before she went to investigate. By the time Boss Keen had raised the alarm, Dawn had crawled out of the little wood, got to her feet and was running across the fields away from the road. Coming to a tree filled gulley, she climbed down into it, turned down hill and ran off as fast as she could through the trees.

Up on the road the Bosses herded the other prisoners into the trucks and called on the radio for someone to get Dog Woman and half a dozen of her hounds out here so they could start a proper search. After a quick examination of the immediate area the bosses could find no trace of Dawn. They pulled Society and Ace out of the truck and started to work them over demanding to know where Dawn was headed. After half an hour Dog Woman turned up with her hounds and the bosses were satisfied that neither Ace nor Society knew anything about where Dawn had gone.

By this time, Dawn had got to the end of the gully and had lowered herself into the river she found there. Swimming strongly she made her way down stream until she came to a railroad bridge where she climbed out and up onto the bridge. Picking a direction, she ran along the railroad tracks. Her plan called for her to find a small town fairly quickly. Steal some clothes, money and food, find a road and hopefully catch a bus, she didn’t care where to just as long as it was away from here and if possible out of the State.

The sun was high in the sky by the time she saw the little huddle of houses off to one side of the tracks. Cutting across country, Dawn hid behind the rusting hulk of an old car and watched the houses as she caught her breath. There were three or four houses, shacks really made out of wood and tar-paper. Washing hung limply in the back yards and a couple of mangy dogs trotted between the buildings sniffing hopefully at the overflowing trash cans.

Working her way carefully towards the shacks, Dawn frightened off the dogs with a couple of well aimed stones. Running up to the back of the biggest shack she tried the door. Surprised at finding it unlocked she pushed it open slowly and carefully stepped inside. Finding herself in a kitchen, she stopped to listen; she heard no sign that anyone had detected her; in fact it appeared that her luck was holding, there didn’t seem to be anyone at home.

Quickly Dawn searched through the house; it didn’t take her long because the shack only had three rooms. What she was looking for was a pair of sneakers or something to swap with her boots and a jacket to put on over her t-shirt. Finding a jacket, Dawn put it on, it fitted, more or less and a search of the pockets gave her nearly a dollar in small chance. There were however no shoes and no more money to be found. Going back into the kitchen she found half a stale loaf. Stuffing the bread into her mouth she ate quickly as she filled an empty soda bottle with water and placed it in the pocket of her jacket. Just as she was heading out the back door something caught her attention. Far in the distance she could just make out the baying of hounds.

“Damn it!” Dawn turned back into the kitchen and ransacked the cupboards.

Surprisingly it didn’t take long for her to find what she was looking for. Taking the pepper pot and the box of chilly powder, Dawn headed for the front of the shack and went out through the door. Knowing that dogs were basically stupid and would follow a scent trail wherever it led, she knew they’d follow her into the shack and then follow her out the front door. This was where she sprinkled the contents of the pepper pot and chilly powder, before trotting off towards what looked like a farm track.

0=0=0=0

Standing at the junction of two farm tracks, Dawn wondered which way she should go. The land around here was very flat and open, broken only by the occasional barbed wire fence or small copse of trees. In the distance she could see what were probably farms but she didn’t want to go near those. Farms had farmers with shotguns and dogs that wouldn’t be scared away when she threw stones at them. With her mixture of north eastern and Californian accent anyone who spoke to her would soon realise she wasn’t local and that would make them suspicious, perhaps suspicious enough to call the sheriff.

Starting to regret leaving the railroad line, Dawn began to walk across the fields towards a copse of trees in the distance. Perhaps if she’d stayed on the tracks she might have been able to jump aboard a slow moving freight train and could be miles away in a very few hours. But, it was no use second guessing herself, she’d made her decisions, right or wrong and now she’d have to live with them.

Coming to a fence, Dawn climbed over it, walked along the line of the wire and then climbed back again, repeating the process once more, Dawn continued on towards the copse. Each fence she came to she followed the same procedure knowing that the hounds would follow her trail and hopefully get hung up on the rusty bared wire. By the time she got to the copse the sun was heading rapidly towards the horizon. Sitting down under a tree, Dawn drank some of the water from her soda bottle and tried to work out what to do.

Deciding to risk staying in the wood tonight, Dawn thought she might try one of the farms tomorrow, perhaps if she looked miserable and harmless enough some farmer’s wife might give her something to eat and set her on course to the nearest town. Whatever she did, tomorrow she’d need to find proper food and more water; money would be a good thing too. Wrapping her jacket around herself the best she could, Dawn curled up under a tree and quickly fell asleep. As she slept she dreamt of Buffy and herself when they’d been normal little girls before Buffy had become 'The Slayer' and everything had changed.

0=0=0=0

The bosses didn’t catch up to her until the following morning; Dawn was crossing a field near a farm house when she saw the hound racing towards her across the dusty earth. Giving herself a quiet self-congratulatory cheer, Dawn didn’t even try to run she knew she’d never escape the hound now it had seen her. However, she guessed from the fact that there was only the one dog that all her little tricks had put the others out of action; she could take some comfort in that.

The dog bounded up to her and knocked her to the ground; it didn’t bite or savage her it just stood out of reach and barked loudly until the bosses caught up with her. When the dog stopped barking, Dawn pulled her head from under her arms and looked up to see Bosses Paula and Godfrey looking down at her. Dog Woman was over by the hound petting it. For a moment Dawn wondered what would happen next, no doubt she was in for a severe beating and a long stay in the box. It didn’t surprise her when Dog Woman got up and kicked her in the stomach.

“BITCH!” Screamed Dog Woman as she kicked Dawn again and again, obviously, Dawn thought through her pain, she must have done more than give the dogs a few scratches.

Pulling, Dog Woman to one side, Boss Paula gestured to Boss Godfrey who stepped forward and pulled Dawn to her feet, only to knock her down again with a well aimed punch to her chest. Lying on the ground, Dawn curled up into a ball as she tried to protect her head and the two bosses worked her over with their canes. After what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes the two bosses pulled her to her feet and dragged her back to where they’d left their pick-up. Here they tied her wrists to the back of the pick-up and beat her back until she collapsed again. Satisfied that she’d been beaten into submission they threw her into the back of the pick-up and drove back to the compound.

0=0=0=0

It was almost midday when they drove into the parking lot in front of the compound. The two bosses dragged Dawn from the back of the pick-up and over to the gate to the compound. Boss Henry was there to let them in, closing the gate behind them the old boss shook his head sadly as the two bosses dragged the girl over to the box, stripped her naked and pushed her inside. He winced as he saw the bruises on Dawn’s body and started to think that maybe it was time to go look for another job.

0=0=0=0

The next thing Dawn was aware of was that she was being dragged from the dark cramped confines of the box by two bosses. They held her up between them and she became conscious of the other inmates standing in a line on the path after coming in from work. The Captain came over to join the little group and someone yelled for everybody to turn and face the Captain.

“I had hoped that you’d be better than this, Summers,” Captain Stother said slowly, “but it seems you need remindin’ of what I’ve been saying, this is all for your own good.”

“I wish you’d stop being so good to me, Captain,” Dawn replied through bloodied lips, as she spat blood onto the dry grass.

“Don’t you ever talk that way to me,” Stother’s voice trembled with anger; he snatched a cane off one of the bosses and brought it slashing down on Dawn’s back, “NEVER!” he screamed as he watched Dawn fall to her knees. “NEVER!” he repeated as he struck out at her again and again as Dawn fell forward onto her chest.

“I…,” Captain Stother fought to regain control of his temper, after a few moments he succeeded; passing the cane back to Boss Paula he turned to face the other inmates. “What we have here is a failure to communicate,” he told them. “Some women you just can’t reach, so you get what you’ve got here,” he gestured to where Dawn lay. “If this is the way she wants it, well, she gets it. I don’t like it any more than you women.”

Turning away Captain Stother headed on back towards his little clapboard house, leaving Dawn lying naked and beaten on the ground. Someone threw Dawn’s clothes at her.

“Get dressed bitch,” Boss Paula told her, “and get back in line there,” the boss glanced over at the other inmates, “Hey, Society, Ace,” she called, “git over here an’ give her a hand.”

The two women hurried over and pulled Dawn to her feet while picking up her clothes.

“You get her cleaned up,” Boss Paula pointed her cane at the women, “an’ make sure she’s ready for work tomorrow. If’n she ain’t you’ll all regret it, understand?”

“Yes Boss,” Ace and Society helped Dawn towards the barracks.

“Thanks guys,” Dawn whispered.

“You’re welcome, honey,” Society replied.

“What are friends for?” Ace pointed out.

It was only as her friends were helping her into her clothes that Dawn noticed the bruises on there faces.

“Oh freakin’ hell guys,” Dawn shook her head in sorrow at what the bosses had done to her friends because she’d tried to escape, “they beat on you ‘cause I ran?”

“Sure did,” Ace replied as she helped Dawn towards the barracks, “you weren’t to know.”

“No,” Dawn shook her head, “it was totally my fault I should have taken you with me.”

“Hey,” Society started to steer Dawn inside, “if’n we hadn’t been there they’d only have beaten on someone else, honey.”

“Sneaky, bastards,” Dawn sat down next to the table near the boss’s station, “great way to stop people running. Run and your friends get the crap beaten out of them.” Dawn looked from one friend to the other, “Next time everyone gets outta here…no one gets left behind.”

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

“I don’t think this is a very good idea, Captain,” Boss Paula stood a couple of feet away from the Captain Stother’s desk: the room was stuffy and dark, illuminated only by the candles on the altar behind the Captain’s desk.

“Why’s that, Sister Paula?” The Captain looked up from the ledger he’d been studying as it lay on his desk.

“Well, Sir,” Boss Paula shifted her feet uncomfortably and hesitated; it was unwise to criticise the Captain, unfortunate things tended to happen to the people who did. “The prisoners will be workin’ near The Farm, what if one of them gets away and sees what’s goin’ on there?”

“Make sure that none of them do, anyway its miles from where they’ll be working,” the Captain replied slowly; he shifted in his chair and sighed, when he spoke again it was in a much more normal tone of voice. “Look, Sister Paula,” he sighed, “the road needs repairing anyway and the Lord says these women have to suffer, I can’t see a problem here, two birds, one stone!” The Captain leant back in his chair and folded his hands together over his stomach, “It’s not as if any of them are ever goin’ to leave this place or the farm alive, so they’re not goin’ to tell anyone what’s happenin’ here.”

“Sir,” Boss Paula persisted, “we’ve been beating on these bitches extra hard these last few weeks, what more does the Lord want us to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” the Captain ran his hand through his sparse hair, “Oh, yes I do!” The Captain grinned broadly, “Chain ‘em up and use the whips, you know I never did like those canes they don’t hurt near enough,” the Captain paused before adding, “the Lord told me to sacrifice ‘em.”

“Now many?” Boss Paula wanted to know.

“All,” the Captain smiled evilly, “that should keep the Lord satisfied for now. We’ve got new-meat comin’ a week or two so no one will miss them. But, mind you don’t kill that Summers girl and her friends The Lord’s got plans for them.”

“Dragline?” Boss Paula asked.

“Sacrifice her with the others,” The Captain nodded his head slowly, “Might as well, she’s served her purpose and she’ll be no good on the farm, I mean,” Captain Stother laughed, “who’d wanna fuck that?”

“Yes, indeed, Sir.” Boss Paula replied slowly, “Shall we say ‘shot while trying to escape’?”

“Yeah, that’ll do to keep the records straight, ‘though why we bother I don’t know? It’s not as if anyone ever checks up on us.” Captain Stother shrugged, “Like I say none of ‘em are ever goin’ to be able to talk about this anyway.”

“Yes Captain,” Boss Paula agreed.

“Get on then, Sister Paula,” Captain Stother stood up and spread his arms in supplication, “do the Lord’s work, make them suffer like they’ve never suffered before make their last days on this earth hell!”

Sitting back in his chair, Captain Stother smiled as he watched Boss Paula leave, she was the best Guard Boss he’d had in many a year; she was a faithful servant of The Lord. The Lord had set this prison and the farm up over a hundred years ago to feed his lusts and desires. The women, who were condemned to Road Prison 36, would serve out their sentences before being sent to The Farm. No one ever got released. Once sent to the farm they’d live maybe another ten years before they were eventually too worn out to serve The Lord and be killed.

However, every twenty or twenty-five years the lord would call for a mass sacrifice when all but a very few of the inmates would be beaten and worked to death over a period of a week. After they were all dead they would start again with a fresh set of inmates and The Lord would reward His servants and things would go back to the way it had always been and no one would be any the wiser because The Lord watched over His servants and kept them safe from prying eyes.

0=0=0=0

It was a Monday morning about two weeks after her escape attempt and Dawn tried to ignore the loud bell that was calling her from her bed. Eventually the sound of the insistent bell and the noise made by her fellow inmates drove her from under her blanket. Rolling out of bed, she jumped to the floor, trying to keep out of Society’s way she put on her t-shirt and jeans. Next came her socks and denim shirt, finally she slipped her feet into her work boots before heading off to the washroom. As long as she didn’t waste time lacing up her boots she’d have enough time to brush her teeth and empty her bowels and bladder. These necessaries completed, she went back to her bunk, stowed away her toothbrush before quickly making up her bed. The bell rang again, she’d finished just in time; heading for the door to line up outside, Dawn and the other prisoners were counted by Carla as they passed through the door.

“Forty-seven present, Boss!” Carla called to Boss Keen; they were three inmates down as three girls had been released on the previous Saturday.

“Forty-seven!” Boss Keen called back as she lined the prisoners up outside the barracks.

“This is new,” Dawn whispered to Ace as they stood in line together.

“New is bad,” Society remarked, “learnt that at my old jail.”

“NO TALKING!” Boss Shorty hit Society across the back of her legs with his cane as he walked behind her.

“How they do that?” Society winced once the boss had moved on down the line.

Neither Ace nor Dawn spoke, they just shrugged their shoulders.

“Okay lead off to the cook house,” ordered Boss Keen, “you’ll be eatin’ before you go out today.”

Exchanging silent looks Ace, Dawn and Society glanced at each other. Eating before they went out meant a long journey to wherever they were going to be working. This would also mean it would be a long journey back in the afternoon; chances were they’d not get back to the compound until late. They’d probably only have time to eat, shower then fall exhausted into their bunks.

“This sounds bad,” Dawn whispered only to get a cane across her shoulders for breaking the ‘no talking’ rule.

How the hell had anyone heard her? Was Dawn’s first thought after the pain had subsided a little. The boss’s hearing seemed to be extra sensitive this morning and they all appeared extra eager to use their canes.

After eating their beans and cornbread, the prisoners lined up on the path leading to the gate. Standing there in the long line of prisoners, Dawn watched as Boss Paula came out of the admin house, walked down the steps in front of the veranda and made her way to the gate. Boss Higgins opened up for her then locked up again once she was inside the compound. Coming to a halt, Boss Paula turned to face the prisoners.

“Okay you idle bitches,” Boss Paula sneered, “me an’ the Captain are both sick of your lazy, goof off ways.” Boss Paula started to pace up and down in front of the inmates, “So, to wake you all up a little he’s found something special for you to do,” she turned to where two Bosses stood carrying a long metal box between them, “Boss Smith, Boss Taylor,” she gestured to the prisoners, “chain ‘em up.”

“What!” Someone called out in surprise.

“Hey Boss we ain’t done nothing to…AAAGH!” The prisoner was silenced as Boss Keen hit her in the back with the butt of her shotgun, the prisoner’s cry of pain had the effect of silencing any more protests.

“SHUT UP YOU WHORES!” Yelled Boss Paula, “I’m sick of your whining, lazy ways!”

Dawn glanced at both of her friends; lazy? Her expression seemed to ask.

“You better work hard on this special job,” Boss Paula pointed her cane at the line of women, “or you’ll all be sorry.”

Looking down, Dawn found that Boss Smith and Boss Taylor had got to her already. They closed the leg irons around her ankles and locked them shut with a big brass key before moving on to Society. Again the three friends exchanged looks, they weren’t about to even whisper now as the bosses appeared to be listening very closely this morning. Lifting her feet in turn, Dawn gauged the weight of the leg irons. They weren’t that heavy, but the chain between the shackles around her ankles was only about eighteen inches long. It would restrict her ability to walk and stop her from running.

After about five minutes, all the prisoners had been chained up; Boss Paula turned them to the left than marched them out to the waiting truck. As she shuffled along behind Society, Dawn could see the old converted army trucks that they usually travelled in, plus the beat-up old pick-up that Boss Paula and Boss Godfrey used. Nowhere, however, was their any sign of the pick-up that carried the work crew’s tools and rations. Turning to Ace, Dawn nodded to the vehicles and shrugged; Ace had noticed the absence of the pick-up too but could only shrug in reply. Getting into the trucks was made difficult because the leg irons prevented the women from lifting their legs high enough to get their feet on the first foothold. Instead they had to pull themselves up by their arms and then sort of twist and turn until they got their butt onto the bed of the truck. From there they could shuffle their way into the truck until they could stand up again. Making her way to her corner seat, Dawn sat down between her friends and watched as the boss closed and locked the mesh door. No one spoke until the truck’s engine had started and they had pulled out onto the road.

“What the hells goin’ on here?” Demanded Dragline from her place by the door.

There were similar exclamations from other prisoners all demanding to know what was going on. As no one had a clue and there weren’t too many answers, eventually Dawn spoke up.

“Hey, Dragline,” Dawn called, “you’ve been here as long as anyone, anything like this ever happen before?”

Giving the impression of thinking very hard, Dragline remained silent for a moment before speaking again.

“No,” she said eventually, “can’t even remember anyone saying about anythin’ like this either before I got sent here.”

“How long have you been here, Dragline?” Dawn asked over the sound of the truck’s motor.

“‘Bout five years, maybe six,” Dragline muttered.

“Hey you musta been seventeen when they put you in here,” Koko exclaimed, “what yo…”

“No time for that, Koko,” Dawn shut the woman up, she could see that something was upsetting Dragline, old memories probably. “Look guys,” Dawn watched the faces of her fellow prisoners as they sat confused and sacred in the back of the truck, “like Dragline said, nothing like this has happened in at least five years probably longer, so…what’s changed?”

No one spoke, Dawn turned to Ace and Society, like her they were brighter than most of the women in the truck she really hoped they’d come up with a plausible explanation. The explanation she had going around in her mind didn’t bear thinking about.

“Damned if I know,” Ace admitted.

“Maybe we just ain’t been working hard enough,” Society suggested with no great conviction.

“Hey,” Rabbit, a teenager with honey blonde hair, called from further down the truck, “we’ve been workin’ our asses off.”

“Yeah,” Dawn held up her hand, “like, calm down, snapping at each other isn’t going to help.”

Listening as the prisoners talked about their likely fate, Dawn rested her head against the wall of the shelter and closed her eyes. The ideas going around inside her head were born of her memories of Sunnydale. Although she’d only been eleven or twelve when her family had first moved to the Hellmouth. Like most youngsters, she’d been too wrapped up in her own concerns to really notice what was going on around her. It hadn’t taken very long before even she began to realise Sunnydale wasn’t like other towns. By the time she was in her teens she’d noticed the weirdness all around her. So, it wasn’t surprising that the explanations going around in her mind concerned the supernatural.

“So what do you think’s goin’ on?” Ace asked her quietly; the other prisoners had been reduced to a sullen silence.

“Don’t know,” Dawn opened her eyes as she shook her head; a thought suddenly hit her. “Hey, Ace you’re from out of state right?”

“Yeah, Maryland originally,” Ace replied, “what’s that got to do with anything?”

“Society,” Dawn turned to her other friend, “you’re from Tennessee, right?”

“Got it in one, honey,” Society nodded.

“Hey listen up guys,” Dawn called to the other prisoners, “is anyone here actually from in state? Do you know anyone who’s totally from South Marianna?”

There was a chorus of puzzled ‘No’s’ from everyone in the back of the truck.

“Anyone at all?” Dawn asked hopefully, again there were nothing but denials.

“What you getting’ at, Cool Hand?” Rabbit wanted to know; she was obviously quicker on the up take than the rest.

“Well,” Dawn smiled uneasily, “don’t you think it’s odd that no one is actually from South Marianna?” Dawn paused to let that sink in before she spoke again, “And don’t you all think its just plain weird that we’re all white? This is the Deep South for christ’s sake!” Dawn had the bit between her teeth now and just kept on talking, “And what’s with this thing about no one being over twenty-five or so? What’s that all about?”

If anything the prisoners now looked even more scared than they had before, if that was possible.

“Cool Hand’s right,” Dragline said slowly from by the door, “I ain’t ever seen no nig…blacks,” Dragline corrected herself, “in the compound. Like she says, I must be one of the oldest here; apart from Carla an’ Dog Woman…they’ve always been here.” Dragline shook her head slowly as she tried to puzzle out what was going on, finally she looked up at Dawn, “What do we do, Cool Hand?”

“I don’t know,” Dawn shook her head slowly, “all I can think is we keep our heads down until we find out what’s going on then we make a plan, okay?”

“Cool Hand’s right,” Rabbit said looking around the shelter, “we’ve gotta have a plan before we do anythang.”

0=0=0=0

The little convoy had been travelling for what felt like about two hours, maybe more, before it slowed down and pulled off the road. There’d been no rest breaks; they’d just travelled on at a steady speed along deserted country back roads. Dawn guessed that they could have travelled anywhere from sixty to a hundred miles, they could be anywhere in South Marianna or even in one of the neighbouring States.

Slowly the truck pulled up on the side of the road and there were sighs of relief from more than a few of the women as they hoped they were going to stop so they could empty their painfully full bladders. Hearing the door to the cab open, Dawn listened as someone climbed out and walked off into the distance.

“Anyone see what’s going on?” Dawn asked.

“There’s a fence heading off into the woods either side of a track,” Rabbit had her head pressed to the mesh that covered the window on her side of the shelter.

There was a sound like someone unlocking a padlock and chain then the unmistakeable sound of a gate squeaking as it was opened. Slowly the truck pulled forward. In the back the prisoners crowded around the side windows hoping to see what was going on and where they were going. Sure enough they could see a high chain-link fence with rolls of barbed wire on the top; Boss Keen stood holding a big gate open and waiting for the rest of the convoy to pass through. Once again the truck stopped, they saw Boss Keen run by then heard her climb into the cab and the door being shut.

With a roar of revving engines the trucks moved off along an unpaved track deeper into the trees that closed in on the dusty road. On and on they went until the truck was bouncing from side to side on the uneven surface of the track and it finally came to a halt. Once again they heard the cab door open and then a moment later Boss Keen reappeared to unlock the back of the truck.

“Get out, you filth!” She ordered as she stepped back from the door and pointed her shotgun at the women as they slowly climbed down from the truck.

“That doesn’t sound hopeful,” Ace pointed out.

Normally the bosses referred to the prisoners as ‘you women’ or something like that, they were rarely that insulting.

“Line up in number order,” Boss Keen called always keeping a good four or five yards between herself and the closest prisoner.

“Caught short here Boss!” Several women indicated that they needed to go into the bushes to relieve themselves.

“Hold it!” Boss Keen snapped.

“Line up, no talking!” Boss Paula and Boss Godfrey walked towards the milling crowd of women.

Slowly the prisoners sorted themselves out and lined up, during this initial period of confusion, Dawn took the time to look around at her surroundings. The track itself was about three paces wide and heavily overgrown on either side. What wasn’t overgrown was full of potholes or obstructed by rocks that stuck up from the surface or blocked by branches that had fallen down during the last hurricane. The trees on either side of the track grew to within a few feet of the track itself and were closely spaced so as to make it difficult for anyone foolish enough to try and make their way through the wood.

“Listen up!” Boss Paula called getting everyone’s attention, “like I said back at the compound the Captain and myself think things were getting too easy for you bitches so we thought up something special for you to do.” Boss Paula smiled nastily as she watched the reaction on the prisoner’s faces, “This here road needs improving and you are the bitches that are goin’ to do the job…and just to make sure you do it properly we’re gonna stay out here ‘til its done. There will be no going back to the compound at night. You will sleep and eat out here ‘til you’ve finished!”

There were low mutterings of rebellion from the prisoners, but they were quickly silenced as the bosses wielded their canes freely; landing blows on the backs and buttocks of anyone who dared to speak.

“If anyone thinks they might try for the outside world,” Boss Paula continued, “let me just point out that there’s ten miles of rough country before you even get to the perimeter fence,” she smirked. “If you manage to get to the perimeter and over the fence there’s another twenty or thirty miles of swamp and gators with only one road goin’ through it before you get to the closest town,” Boss Paula paused to let that sink in, “you’re welcome to try for it, of course.”

Turning slightly she looked at the Bosses who were standing around keeping an eye on the prisoners.

“Okay, people, split ‘em up into details,” she ordered.

“Okay!” Called Boss Keen as she walked towards the line of cowed prisoners, “Prisoner numbers thirty to thirty-nine follow me.”

Shuffling off after the Boss, Dawn was glad to note she’d be with her two best friends. Plus there was Rabbit, the girl who’d spoken earlier and who’d only just received her prison name. Two new-meat girls who’d been at the compound for about a week; they’d done nothing to get themselves christened. There was also Arleta, a woman in her twenties who’d served about a year and Red who’d arrived at about the same time as Dawn. The detail only numbered eight because there were two empty spots waiting to be filled by more new-meat.

Hurrying after Boss Keen as best they could and trying not to fall the women were led over to a corrugated iron hut that stored the crew’s tools. Shovels, pickaxes and a couple of lengths of stout rope were handed out. Clutching their tools the prisoners followed their boss down the track until they stopped a couple of dozen yards away from the nearest other work crew. It was only then that Dawn noticed that the boss had lost her shotgun and cane and had picked up a whip from somewhere.

“Oh shit!” Dawn gasped without thinking when she saw the whip.

“You wanna be the first to try out ol’ ‘snake’ here, thirty-seven?” Boss Keen pointed the whip at Dawn.

“No Boss!” Dawn said quickly and shook her head just to make sure the boss understood her; she also noticed that she’d been called by her number which was incredibly bad news.

“Okay you filth,” Boss Keen rested her hands on her pistol belt, “we’re gonna clear this section and we’re gonna do it in record time too.” Boss Keen smiled at her victims and almost liked her lips in anticipation, “You see me an’ the other bosses have a bet on to see whose crew can clear the most track the quickest. Now I wanna win that bet and you better not disappoint me!”

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10\. 

**Author’s note:** Just a timely reminder, warnings for brutality and violence.

After glancing at her watch, Boss Paula reluctantly blew her whistle signalling the end of the day’s work. Exhausted, Dawn slumped down next to the rock that she and her friends had been trying to dig out of the track for most of the afternoon. Yelping in pain, Dawn cried out as Boss Keen’s whip slashed across her shoulders just as it had more than a dozen times during the course of the day. 

“What d’you think you whores are doin’?” Boss Keen demanded, “This ain’t no time to rest…you gotta clear away all them tools.”

Grimacing at her new pain, Dawn looked up at her tormentor from under her eyebrows before she started to push herself slowly back to her feet.

“You eyeballing me, thirty-seven?” Keen demanded as she thrust her whip in Dawn’s face.

“No Boss!” Dawn replied as she quickly lowered her gaze.

“You better not be,” warned the boss, “now collect up them tools an’ put them back in the hut.”

Reluctantly, Dawn and her friends picked up the tools and carried them back to the storage hut and handed them over to Boss Shorty. Once that job was completed the prisoners were lined up along the road and counted before being allowed to collect their evening meal.

“NO TALKING!” Yelled Boss Paula as the prisoners shuffled forward to collect their evening meal of cold beans and cornbread.

To be honest Dawn was too tired to talk, she couldn’t remember being so drained in all her life, she felt almost too fatigued to eat. Forcing herself to spoon the beans into her mouth and gnaw at the stale cornbread. Dawn knew she had to keep her strength up or she’d never survive. Looking around she noticed Society sitting in the dust beside her just staring at her food.

“Come-on, Society,” Dawn whispered as loudly as she dared, “you got to eat.”

Slowly the woman picked up her spoon and started to transfer beans from her plate to her mouth, she chewed automatically before swallowing and starting the procedure all over again. As soon as the prisoners had eaten and drunk their tin mug full of water they were lined up behind the trucks and counted again. Cracking their whips the bosses herded the women into the back of the trucks; any woman who had difficulty climbing up into the trucks were helped along by having a whip laid across her back.

Stumbling to the back of the shelter, Dawn slumped down into her corner and moaned softly as her abused back touched the metal wall of the little cabin. There were more than twenty women in the back of the truck. This wasn’t a problem when they were just being transported out to a work site. But, as it was obvious the bosses intended for them to sleep in the trucks overcrowding was going to be a major concern. Before locking the door, Boss Shorty lifted two buckets into the back of the truck.

“A bucket to piss in,” he informed them, “and a bucket of water to drink…don’t get ‘em mixed up!” 

With that he slammed the door shut and locked it before walking away to join the other bosses. Watching through the mesh of the door, Dawn could just see the bosses climb into the pick-up and drive off into the failing light.

“There just going to leave us out here?” Dawn muttered.

“Looks like,” agreed Dragline, from her position next to the door she had a better view of what was going on outside.

“What happens if there’s an emergency?” Tattoo, a woman on Dragline’s crew asked.

“I don’t think they care,” Ace sighed from next to Dawn.

“I stink,” Society informed everyone after pulling her t-shirt away from her skin and sniffing inside.

“Don’t think it matters,” Dawn informed her as she looked around the darkened interior of the truck, “Rabbit?” she called softly, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” came the faint reply from the middle of the truck.

“Come over here,” Dawn told the girl, “you’re part of our crew so we stick together and look out for each other, okay?”

The four women; Ace, Dawn, Society and Rabbit had been working together all day and had bonded into a team.

“Hey people,” Dawn called out to the other women, “look out for each other, right? It’s the only way we’re going to get through this.”

“Talking of getting through this,” this was Tattoo speaking again, “what the hell are they tryin’ to prove?”

“Yeah,” another voice in the dark agreed, Dawn thought it was a woman called ‘Car’, “ain’t there laws against this sort of treatment?”

There were mutterings of agreement from all around the interior of the shelter.

“Look,” Dawn called quietly, “you know I was saying there was no one here from in state?” Again various voices agreed with her. “I think that’s how they get away with it…”

“But that doesn’t stop us goin’ home and reporting them to the Feds or something,” Ace pointed out, “after enough women come forward with the same story even the FBI are gonna take notice an’ investigate.”

“You think?” Whoever said that didn’t sound convinced.

“I’m too tired ta think,” observed Society.

“Yeah,” Dawn agreed, “lets get some rest, eh?”

Resting her head against the wall of the shelter, Dawn closed her eyes and quickly fell into an exhausted sleep. As she slept, she dreamed of Buffy coming to save her just like she had when she was a teenager.

0=0=0=0

They were woken the next morning before the sun had even started to lighten the horizon. Forced out of their slumbers by yells and threats from the bosses they were again lined up and counted before they were even allowed to relieve themselves in the woods. After a breakfast of yet more cold beans and cornbread, the bosses lined them up along the road and counted them once more. Once they were satisfied that no one had sneaked off into the woods, Boss Paula walked over from the pick-up and stood in front of them.

“I spoke to the Captain last night,” Boss Paula informed them, “and I gotta say he ain’t pleased with your progress.” Boss Paula shook her head in a display of faux sorrow, “To make up for your idle, lazy ways I’ve decided to increase the time you spend working.”

There were groans of despair from the prisoners followed by cries of ‘No talking’ and ‘Silence’ from the bosses as they struck out with their whips at random women.

“From now on,” Boss Paula informed them once order had been restored, “there will be only one five minute rest break every two hours and the midday meal break will be cut to fifteen minutes. In addition to that you’ll be working from dawn to last light.” 

Turning from the prisoners, she walked back towards the pick-up where Boss Godfrey stood waiting for her impassively. Once Boss Paula had moved away the other bosses moved in and organised their work crews with a mixture of threats and blows from their whips.

0=0=0=0

All morning the women worked as the sun climbed higher in the sky to beat down on them almost as ferociously as the bosses beat on them with their whips. To the constant accompaniment of cries of, ‘No talking!’ and ‘Faster!’ Dawn and her crew tried to dig up a large rock that was buried in the middle of the track. The rock had a sharp point that stuck up about six inches above the surface of the trail. Standing over them, Boss Keen plied her whip across their backs every time she even suspected one of them of slacking off. Their only relief was when the boss went off to torment the other half of the work crew who were working to clear a tree from next to the track.

It was nearly midday and they still hadn’t been able to move the rock from out of the middle of the track. They’d dug down until they’d been able to get under the rock and put a rope around it. Now the four women heaved on the rope as Boss Keen encouraged them by beating their backs and legs with her whip. Finally they fell to the ground in a worn out heap. Even Boss Keen stopped beating on them because it was obvious that they weren’t going to move the bolder this way.

“Get to your lazy, stinking feet, thirty-seven!” the boss ordered Dawn; she seemed to take a special delight in persecuting her.

Slowly, painfully Dawn pushed herself to her feet and stood swaying slightly from exhaustion; she kept her eyes cast down in front of the boss.

“Go see, Boss Shorty in the hut an’ get a wreaking bar offa him,” Boss Keen ordered, “we’ll try to lever this sucker out.” Realising that Dawn hadn’t moved Keen raised her whip ready to strike, “get moving, bitch!”

Shuffling as fast as she could in her leg irons, Dawn went over to the hut and stood at the door, inside she could see Boss Shorty sitting on a crate in amongst the spare tools drinking from a mug of coffee, he looked up and noticed her as she waited by the door.

“What d’you want, thirty-seven?” he asked not giving her a second look.

“Boss Keen sent me to get a wreaking bar, Boss,” Dawn replied respectfully.

“There you go,” Shorty gestured to a big heavy crow-bar leaning against the corner of the hut, “what are you waiting for?”

Moving across the hut, Dawn headed for where the wreaking bar lay.

“But first,” Boss Shorty put down his mug and stood up, “you’ve gotta pay.”

“Yes Boss,” Dawn stopped in her tracks and wondered what the boss wanted her to do.

“On your knees, bitch,” ordered the boss.

Grateful for the chance to get off her feet, Dawn sank to her knees, while all the time keeping her eyes firmly on the ground. After unzipping his pants, Boss Shorty grabbed hold of the hair at the back of Dawn’s head and pulled her head back.

“Suck it,” he ordered as he pressed the tip of his penis against her lips.

“Yes Boss,” Dawn murmured tiredly; she’d sucked her boyfriend’s cock before, she’d even sucked a guard, more than a few times, when she’d been in Juvie to get extra food and blankets for herself; one more cock wouldn’t make any difference.

Opening her lips, Dawn took the boss’s, hot, hard penis into her mouth and started to suck on it slowly. Perhaps, she thought as she ran her tongue around the end of the Boss’s dick, if she did a good enough job Boss Shorty wouldn’t beat on her and she’d have one less boss to worry about. As the bosses cock grew bigger and harder in her mouth, Dawn had a fleeting thought of rebellion. What if she just bite the bastard’s dick off? Chances were the other bosses would kill her, but at least this torture would be over and she’d die knowing she’d taken one the shits with her! As she sucked and Shorty’s breathing became louder and more excited as he pushed more of himself into her mouth, Dawn became aware of footsteps approaching from behind her.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOIN’?” Yelled Boss Paula as she burst in upon the scene.

“Sister…!” Boss Shorty quickly pulled his rapidly shrinking penis from Dawn’s mouth and started to stuff it back into his pants.

“How dare you use one of the Lord’s chosen?” Boss Paula sounded very angry so Dawn crouched down on the floor and hoped no one would notice her.

“The Lord won’t mind if she just gives me a quick suck,” Boss Shorty pleaded, “what’s it to Him?”

“Did The Lord say you could use one of His whores?” Boss Paula demanded.

Slowly words started to register in Dawn’s fatigue and pain numbed mind; ‘The Lord’? She could hear the capital letters in Boss Paula’s voice; were these assholes some kind of weird Christian cult?

“No, Sister,” Boss Shorty admitted quietly.

“Look,” Boss Paula had lost some of the anger from her voice, “if you really must; hang one of the older ones from a tree and jerk-off while you beat the crap outta her…The Lord’ll enjoy that, he might even forgive you.”

“You think it’s that bad, Sister Paula?” There was real fear in Shorty’s voice now.

“You were going to defile one of His own,” Boss Paula explained, “I reckon He’s pretty pissed at you right now, you better make that sacrifice.”

Dawn heard Boss Shorty quickly leaving the hut; she found herself alone with Boss Paula.

“You!” Boss Paula grabbed hold of Dawn’s hair and yanked her to her feet; the woman was surprisingly strong, almost slayer strong, “What are you doin’ in here, whore-filth?”

“Boss Keen sent me to get a wreaking bar, Boss,” Dawn kept her eyes firmly on the ground so the boss wouldn’t have any excuse to beat her for ‘eyeballing’ her.

“Well get it and get back to work,” Boss Paula ordered pushing her into the wall of the hut before leaving.

Taking the big crow bar, Dawn shuffled as rapidly as her chains would allow back to her work crew, as soon as she arrived she knew she was in trouble.

“Where the hell have you been?” Boss Keen demanded, “Sneakin’ off and resting your sorry ass you lazy little bitch, while your buddies are still working, eh?”

Ace, Society and Rabbit were indeed still straining at the rope trying to haul the rock out of the hole. Although what Boss Keen thought she’d achieve, Dawn didn’t know. If the four women couldn’t move the stone how could three?

“No Boss, Boss Shorty wanted me to do something then Boss Paula came and…” Dawn tried to explain but Boss Keen was having none of it.

“Calling me a liar?” Keen demanded.

“No, Boss!” Dawn pleaded as she fell to her knees and started to sob, “Please don’t beat on me any more Boss.”

“STAND UP!” Yelled Keen, “You useless piece of shit!”

Unsteadily Dawn climbed to her feet again as tears ran down her face, Boss Keen turned to see the others had stopped trying to pull the rock out of the ground.

“WHO SAID FOR YOU TO STOP!” Keen yelled spit flying from her mouth, “Did I tell you to stop?” she demanded, quickly the three women started to strain on the rope again. “Okay, bitch,” Keen turned her attention back to Dawn, she pointed at a tree next to the track. “Lean against that tree with your arms out straight in front of you.”

Terrified of what was going to happen next, Dawn moved towards the tree; she was even more frightened of what would happen if she disobeyed. Placing her hands on the trunk with her arms out straight, she waited for Boss Keen to start on the beating that this was obviously the prelude to. Coming up behind her, Boss Keen ripped open the filthy ragged remains of Dawn’s t-shirt and pulled it open to expose her bruised and abused back.

After six lashes of the whip, Dawn’s legs gave way and with her back feeling like it was on fire she fell to the ground gasping for breath her cries of pain silenced for the moment.

“Get up,” Boss Keen kicked her in the stomach, “get up and get back to work unless you want more of the same.”

Whimpering in pain, Dawn dragged herself over to where her friends still strained on the rope trying to move the rock. Telling everybody to stop, Boss Keen walked over and took the end of the rope off the three women. Making a loop she put the rope over Dawn’s head so it lay across one shoulder and between her breasts. The rough rope bit cruelly into Dawn’s skin as she strained against it. Eventually, with two women on the wreaking bar and two pulling on the rope they got the rock out of its hole and onto the road. 

By now the sun was past its zenith, Boss Paula blew her whistle for the midday break. Falling immediately to her knees, Dawn found herself being picked up by Rabbit and Ace. They more or less carried her over to the food line and sat with her making her eat and drink a mug of water. Having quickly finished her rations, Society found another mug of water and did her best to wash the cuts on Dawn’s back.

“Best I can do, Honey,” she whispered risking a beating of her own. “Here,” she tied the remains of Dawn’s t-shirt together behind her back, “that’ll stop y’boobs from dropping out.”

All too soon it was time to start work again. Once more the prisoners were counted, somehow it registered in Dawn’s mind that the number of prisoners was less than it had been; she was sure the Boss had said forty-four instead of forty-seven. After her short rest Dawn was able to walk back to where Boss Keen waited for them whip in hand and an evil smile on her face; the women lined up in front of her.

“Now you got that rock out,” she chuckled slowly, “you’re gonna break it up into itty-bitty pieces and put it back. There,” she pointed to where four sledge hammers rested against a tree, “take those an' get on with it I want to see that hole filled in and flattened out by the end of the day.”

Watching for a moment as the four friends sorted themselves out and started work, Boss Keen eventually turned and walked away, no doubt to torment the other women in the crew.

0=0=0=0

It was almost dark, when Boss Paula blew her whistle for the end of work; Dawn and her friends had managed to break up the rock, fill in the hole and firm it down with about an hour to spare before the end of work. Boss Keen didn’t let up however, she started them on digging up the next rock in the road before the Boss Paula blew her whistle.

Once again after the usual counting before the Bosses let them eat and Dawn forced the food into her mouth and into her belly. If she didn’t eat she knew that she’d never make it through the following day despite what Boss Paula had said about her being one of ‘The Lord’s’ chosen. Chosen for what? Whatever it was, Dawn didn’t think it included puppies and kittens, life just wasn’t like that. Gasping as she rested her tortured back against the side of the truck, Dawn heard one of the other woman say something.

“If they go on like this, they’ll kill us all…” cried the anonymous voice.

“I don’t think they care,” replied another woman, Dawn thought she recognised the voice, it was her own.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

“Hey!” Someone was shaking Dawn’s shoulder trying to wake her up, “Cool Hand, wake up!”

“Nooo,” Dawn moaned sleepily, it only felt like an hour or two since she’d sunk down hurt and exhausted in the back of the truck.

“Come-on!” The voice cried insistently, “You’ve gotta wake up!”

“Please Boss,” Dawn begged, “let me sleep…”

“HEY!”

Finding herself being shaken violently by the shoulders, Dawn opened her eyes and found herself staring into Dragline’s dirty face. It was still dark, a shaft of moonlight shone in through the window in the side of shelter illuminating the scene inside. To her sleep numbed mind there appeared to be a lot of movement going on inside the truck, surely the bosses hadn’t thought up some new way of torturing them by making them work through the night.

“What’s wrong Dragline,” Dawn raised her hand to wipe the sleep from her eyes.

“We’re getting’ outta here!” Dragline grinned into Dawn’s face.

“What!?” Dawn looked around in confusion, “What d’you mean, getting out of here?”

“Just what I say,” Dragline started to do something with Dawn’s leg irons, “Fingers found a nail or somethin’,” Dragline explained, “she was able to pick the lock on the back of the truck…”

Suddenly Dawn felt her leg irons fall from her ankles.

“We’re outta here!” Dragline moved on to Ace and started work to free her from her irons.

Having had a chance to wake up a little, Dawn started to notice things; like there were _less_ women in the truck than there had been. The door at the back of the shelter was standing wide open, getting up she could just make out a crowd of women standing around outside or running off into the woods.

“You okay, Cool Hand?” Rabbit took hold of Dawn’s arm and pulled her towards the door.

“Yeah,” Dawn shook her head trying to rid it of the confusion that felt as if she was going to go into overload any moment, “yeah I’m fine.”

Moving towards the exit she paused on the edge of the truck before jumping down onto the track. It felt so strange to be able to move her feet more than eighteen inches apart; she felt slightly light headed at the thought of being free and probably hunger and exhaustion too. Looking around she saw that most of the women from her truck were free and had their leg irons removed. They were already starting to run off into the woods in ones or twos and little groups.

The women from the other truck had been freed but most still had their leg irons on. Turning around in a daze, Dawn saw Society and Rabbit standing next to her, looking back at the truck she saw Ace and Dragline jump down and join them on the road.

“What about the others?” Dawn pointed to the women from the other truck who were milling around still in their leg irons.

“Leave ‘em,” Dragline said simply.

“What!?” Dawn turned on the woman about to demand what she thought she was doing; Dragline held up a hand to forestall Dawn’s coming outburst. 

“Look,” Dragline said quickly, “we gotta get away from here as fast as we can, them,” Dragline jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the other women, “leave ‘em, let the bosses catch ‘em an’ bring ‘em back. It’ll give us a better chance to get away.

Opening her mouth to speak and tell Dragline what a bad idea that was, Dawn suddenly decided that she didn’t want to get caught and brought back. Being caught would be majorly bad; considering what the bosses had done over the last few days, what would they do to any woman who they caught who’d tried to escape? No, the women in the leg irons would move slower than those without; the bosses would catch them first and bring them back and that would all take time; time that Dawn could use to get as far away from here as possible.

“Okay,” Dawn said, she looked around at her friends, no one looked as if they were going to complain, she turned back to Dragline. “Right which way are you going?”

“Me an’ Koko are going that-a-way,” Dragline pointed down the track towards the gate where they’d entered the reserve (or wherever they were) three days ago.

“Okay,” Dawn nodded; “we’ll go this way,” Dawn gestured in the opposite direction.

“Good luck, Cool Hand,” Dragline backed away, turned and started to run with Koko at her side.

“Good luck, Dragline,” Dawn called after the dark shape as it ran down the track, “and thanks!”

Turning back to look at her friends, Dawn noticed they were about the only people left by the truck, she watched as the last women still in leg irons hobbled off into the woods.

“Anybody got a good idea of what to do next?” Dawn asked.

“I thought you said we were goin’ that way,” Rabbit gestured to the moonlit track.

“Yeah,” agreed Ace, “you’re the one with all the smarts you tell us what to do.”

“Hey, guys,” Dawn ran her hand through her filthy hair, “I’m new to all this jail break stuff.”

“Ain’t we all, honey?” Society had been free of her chains for less than five minutes and was already sounding as if she wanted to drag Dawn into the trees and screw her ass off, “Thang is,” she explained breathlessly, “you’ve always been the ‘in charge gal’ an’ we’ve always been ‘follow Cool Hand gals’.” Society paused for a moment before speaking again, “One thang though…”

“What’s that,” Dawn was a little overcome by the vote of confidence in her.

“Don’t y’think we oughta git goin’?”

“Good idea,” Dawn turned and started to walk briskly along the track followed by the other women. “Look…” Dawn began as they started to leave the trucks behind them, suddenly she stopped and held up her hand; everyone came to an untidy halt behind her.

Turning to face the trucks, Dawn took a couple of steps towards it, ‘no’ she was thinking, ‘no one would be that stupid, surely?’

“Did anyone check the trucks?” Dawn asked.

“No…” Ace was watching Dawn carefully; a light seemed to come on above her head as the penny dropped, “Shit!” Ace turned and ran back towards the truck, “I knew you had brains!”

Heading off towards the second truck, Dawn was aware of Ace opening the door to the truck’s cab and looking inside.

“No keys,” Ace called, “but there are a couple of bottles of water and a candy bar!”

Climbing up into the cab of the other truck, Dawn searched around for the keys, moving the sun visor a bunch of keys dropped into her hand.

“FOUND ‘EM!” She yelled, the others ran over to the truck.

“Man! You are one lucky bitch!” Rabbit said in admiration, “How’d y’know?”

“I didn’t,” Dawn shrugged as she climbed in behind the steering wheel, “but just as we were running off I thought, no harm in checking and I was right.”

“Sure, honey,” Society climbed up into the cab and sat beside Dawn.

“Come-on,” Rabbit grinned, “let’s drive!”

“Here,” Ace threw Rabbit the bottles of water and the candy bar before climbing into the cab and squeezing in beside her.

“Okay,” Dawn was trying different keys in the ignition, eventually one fitted, “here goes.”

Turning the key, Dawn was relieved to hear the engine catch and rumble into life. Looking at the controls she worked out which was the handbrake and which was the gear shift. Pressing down on the clutch she struggled to put the truck into gear. The gear box made an awful noise as gears failed to mesh and screamed in protest.

“You sure you know how to drive this here thang, honey?” Society asked over the noise of the protesting gears.

“Look, I’ve only stolen cars before,” Dawn explained as she eventually forced the vehicle into gear, “and I’ve only driven a manual a couple of times before.”

“Okay, honey,” Society sat back in her seat, “just askin’ is all.”

Once the truck was in gear, Dawn gently let out the clutch as she pressed down slowly on the accelerator. By some miracle the truck didn’t stall and they started to move jerkily off along the track.

“Anyone know what time it is?” Dawn sat hunched over the wheel staring off down the dark track trying to not drive off the road; she was too scared she’d lose control to take her hands from the wheel and switch on the lights.

“Must be,” Ace looked up at the sky, “maybe two hours to dawn.”

“Okay,” Dawn started to relax a little, they were doing about ten or twenty miles an hour, “it was maybe, what? Half an hour between the gate and the work site…”

“Ten miles or there abouts,” Rabbit guessed.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Dawn nodded as Society leaned across her and switched on the head lights, “thanks,” Dawn said, “that means we can do ten to forty miles before dawn as long as the road doesn’t get any worse.”

“That should put us at the perimeter fence,” Ace replied.

“If this place isn’t bigger than we think,” Dawn pointed out, “whatever, we should reach the perimeter well before they get any search organised. What say we stick with the truck as long as we can before dumping it and making our way across country?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ace said.

“You’ve done alright so-far,” Rabbit added.

“Do you realise,” Society sniffed, “just how badly we all stink?”

0=0=0=0

Climbing out of the pick-up, Boss Paula looked around and cursed long and hard.

“Don’t tell me someone left the keys in the truck!” Turning angrily to the other bosses she rested her hand on the butt of her revolver, “Which one of you pricks did it?”

After a long moments silence, Boss Shorty held up his hand like a small boy at school.

“I oughta flay you alive for that!” Boss Paula snarled, “But I won’t have to The Lord’ll do it for me!”

“But!” Boss Shorty started to beg for his life.

“Of course,” Boss Paula said in a more normal tone, “if you were to do His will better than the rest of us…”

Leaving the implied escape route unsaid, Boss Paula watched as the hope returned to Boss Shorty’s eyes.

“I will, I will,” he nodded his head eagerly.

“Good,” Boss Paula turned to Boss Godfrey who was, as usual standing behind her, “go let the hounds out!”

Nodding almost imperceptivity before walking over to the truck that had been driven by Boss Higgins. The hounds howled and growled eager to be let out and to start the hunt. They could smell the prey and wanted to rip and tear flesh and hear the prey scream! Unlocking the door to the back of the truck, Boss Godfrey stood back and silently watched as the hounds jumped down onto the track. These were like no ordinary dogs or hounds, they didn’t even look like wolves. They were more like some nightmare version of a great ape crossed with a hyena. Jumping down from the truck they prowled back and forth on their wickedly clawed hands and feet, howling at the moon and sniffing the air.

“Alright, Brothers and Sisters,” Boss Paula walked slowly back towards the pick-up, “lets tool up.”

Reaching into the vehicles the bosses buckled on military style equipment belts carrying pouches containing spare ammunition and water bottles. Each boss picked up their favourite weapon, either a rifle or a shotgun. The hounds, sensing that their masters were ready to start the hunt, clustered around each Boss in groups of four or five.

“Boss Shorty, you go that way,” Boss Paula pointed off to the side of the track. “Boss Higgins, that way,” Boss Paula pointed in the opposite direction. “Keen, you come with me for now, okay?”

There were answering nods from the other Bosses.

“Okay then, lets get started,” Boss Paula looked at the leader of the pack that prowled around her legs and ordered, “Hunt!”

The hounds set off after the prisoners at a steady trot, the kind of speed that a fit, well fed, well rested human could keep up for hours. It was the sort of speed that the hungry, exhausted prisoners could only dream of keeping up for more than a few minutes.

0=0=0=0

After only five minutes or so, Boss Shorty caught a glimpse of the woman as she stumbled between the trees. He whistled at the hounds to make them keep quiet and surround the woman so she couldn’t get away. Swiftly the hounds shot off through the trees hardly making a sound, at least none that the woman would hear as she made her way through the close packed trees.

Sensing the hounds were in position, Boss Shorty brought his rifle to his shoulder and sighted on the running woman; she showed up greenly in his rifle sight. Taking a deep breath he aimed just ahead of the woman and stroked the trigger with his finger. The rifle bullet sped the short distance to its target and hit the woman in the leg bring her down. Walking forward he smiled at the woman as she tried to crawl away from him, he stood over her as she stared up in terror at him.

“Pleased don’t kill me boss!” Pleaded the woman, “I’ll come quite like…” she looked off into the dark woods as she heard the hounds creeping closer. “You wanna fuck me Boss?” She asked hopefully, “You do whatever you want to me, just don’t let those dogs kill me…pleeeez!”

Laughing, Boss Shorty walked away as the hounds closed in on the woman. Opening the bolt of his rifle he ejected the spent cartridge case and replaced it with a fresh one as he listened to the woman’s screams as the hounds tore her apart.

0=0=0=0

Standing with his rifle resting on his hip, Boss Higgins watched as his hounds herded the three women up the track towards him. He noted that they were all still wearing leg irons which was probably why they’d doubled back and were heading along the track when the hounds had caught up with them. Had this been a normal prison break that would have been a fairly sensible plan for the prisoners to make. But this was far from a ‘normal’ jail break. It was one that had been engineered by the guards.

“Hold, bring,” Boss Higgins pointed to one of the prisoners

The pack leader grabbed the woman by the arm and dragged her screaming towards the boss. The pack leader held the woman in its hand-like claws and turned her so she could see her friends.

“Kill!” Ordered Higgins and the hounds leapt on the women ripping them apart before they even had time to start to screaming.

The woman shrieked and then started to sob piteously as Higgins drew his long sharp hunting knife from its sheath. When he started to cut her up, her screams for mercy could be heard nearly half a mile away; they didn’t do her any good.

0=0=0=0

Kneeling on the track, Boss Paula examined the tire tracks.

“Fuckin’ asshole,” she muttered angrily, standing up she brushed off the knee of her pants and turned to Boss Keen. “I bet that’s Cool Hand and her friends in the truck.”

“How’d d’you figger?” Boss Keen asked as she watched the treeline for movement; they’d sent the hounds out to see what they could find, so far they’d only brought back one woman; Boss Godfrey had immediately shot her in the head.

“She’s the only one with the smarts to check the trucks for keys on the off chance that some asshole like Shorty left ‘em in the cab.” Boss Paula shook her head in disgust, “He’ll have to go.”

“Yeah,” Agreed Boss Keen, “I’ve seen him eyeing the offerings and to be honest I don’t like the way he looks at me either.”

“Know what you mean,” Agreed Boss Paula as she looked down the track, “don’t know why we have to have male bosses anyway.”

“I mean we got Godfrey,” Keen pointed, “if The Lord wants any of ‘em fuckin’ he can do it better than either Shorty or Higgins…not that I’ve got anything against Higgins.”

“Look,” Boss Paula rested the butt of her shotgun on the ground, “this ain’t catchin’ us any whores.” She put her fingers to her mouth and gave a sharp whistle to recall the hounds before looking at Keen again, “This here track is a dead end Cool Hand and her friends can’t get far they’ll have to abandon the truck and make their way on foot. They’re not to be killed yet so we can catch ‘em later.”

“What if they get through the perimeter?” Boss Keen asked.

“There’s still thirty miles to the nearest town,” Boss Paula pointed out, “We’ll have plenty of time to catch ‘em…in the mean time,” Boss Paula looked over to where the two hounds dragged a weakly struggling woman out of the trees and onto the track, “we’ve got some whores to catch.”

Walking over to where the hounds stood over the woman, Boss Paula patted the biggest hound on the head.

“Good boy,” she cooed at the creature, before her voice turned harsh again and she pointed to the woman, “kill it!”

The hounds ripped the woman’s throat out before starting to pull her limp body apart.

0=0=0=0

The truck bounced its way along the track as it got rougher and rougher. Struggling to keep control, Dawn finally brought the vehicle to a halt and switched off the engine.

“What’s wrong?” Society asked as she lifted her head from Dawn’s shoulder where she’d fallen asleep.

“Don’t think we’re going any further,” Dawn pointed to where a huge tree had fallen across the track, “Oh well it was a nice ride while it lasted, time to walk now.”

Moaning their disappointment the four women climbed down from the cab and stood on the track. Ace broke up the candy bar and handed it around, there was enough for four squares of chocolate each. Feeling the chocolate pump sugar and energy into her blood stream, Dawn looked around. By the light of the newly risen sun, Dawn could see that the woods surrounding them were even thinker here than the area they’d just passed through. If they were going to make any progress at all they’d have to stay on the track which was little more than a path on the other side of the fallen tree. Accepting a bottle of water off Ace who appeared to have put herself in charge of their meagre rations, she took a long drink before passing the bottle back.

“Look,” Dawn began, “lets head off along the track here, it’s bound to lead somewhere eventually…maybe to the perimeter fence.”

No one had a better idea so they started out by climbing over the tree truck and on down the path. The sun was high in the sky and Dawn was wondering if they were going to have to worry about search planes or helicopters when Rabbit, who was on point cried out and pointed down the path. Running forward as fast as she could Dawn joined Rabbit and saw what she was pointing at.

“The fence,” gasped Rabbit as a wide grin split her grubby face, “the perimeter fence! We’ve made it!”

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

The fence was a good ten or twelve feet high and topped off with several rolls of bright, shiny, new, razor wire. Looking up at the obstacle, Dawn realised that they’d never be able to climb it in their weakened state.

“We’re never gonna get over that,” Ace vocalised what Dawn had been thinking.

Despair appeared to take over the three women with Dawn as they slumped despondently to the ground. What was the point, the expressions on their dirty, haggard faces seemed to ask. Wouldn’t it be better just to give up and take their chances with the bosses? Placing her hands on her hips, Dawn continued standing when all she really wanted to do was to collapse onto the ground close her eyes and sleep. No, she told herself, she wasn’t going to give up, Buffy wouldn’t give up. With a clarity born of a tired mind and body, Dawn realised that she missed her sister. Despite all the other crap in her life, Buffy had always been there for her when it _really_ mattered. Sighing and digging deep for her last reserves of strength and will power, Dawn asked herself; what would Buffy do?

“Come-on, guys,” Dawn turned to look down at her friends, “don’t give up now. We’re nearly free, we’ve just gotta get to the other side of this fence and it’s what? It’s only another twenty or thirty miles to a town. So what if it’s nothing but swamps and gators? That’s nothing to us!”

Dawn’s speech didn’t appear to be having the effect she’d hoped for, in fact her friends looked even more despondent now than they had a couple of minutes ago. 

“Look,” Dawn tried to inject some enthusiasm into her voice; unfortunately even to her it sounded more like pleading. “when your back’s against the wall, or in this case fence…When all you want to do is sit down and give up…when you’ve nothing more to give and everything looks hopeless,” Dawn paused to see if her words were having any effect, at a wild guess she’d have to say ‘no’. “When all you’ve got left is hope…” Dawn’s words faded away to nothing.

It was no good, after three days of unbelievable brutality her friends had nothing left to give; she had nothing left to give. Slumping to the ground, Dawn rested her back against the fence hardly noticing the twinges of pain as her beaten and bruised body came into contact with the wire. Hanging her head between her legs she became aware of how badly she stank; she smelt of sweat, pee and dirt. Even at her worst when she’d been on the streets she’d always tried to keep herself clean, sneaking into washrooms in stores to clean herself up to keep herself looking ‘respectable’. Now these bastards had reduced her to smelling like the worst tramp she’d ever met. It made her angry, balling her fists on her knees she felt the hot angry tears rolling down her face to drip onto the remains of her filthy t-shirt.

The time had come to do or die, and Dawn didn’t want to die; what about that husband she was going to find? What about all the kids she was going to have? If she didn’t get up right this minute all those dreams of a happy home and family would never happen, those kids would never be born; they’d die in this hell-hole along with her. Pushing herself to her feet, Dawn stood up.

“Get up you lazy, stinking bitches,” Dawn snarled, “you want to die here or something? You want the bosses to win?”

“It’s no use, honey,” Society looked wearily up at Dawn, “we’re fucked.”

“And you’ll never get fucked again if you don’t get up and move!” Dawn pointed out with as much conviction as she could manage. “Okay!” Dawn threw up her hands in disgust, “If that’s the way you want it I’m just going to leave you here! If you want the bosses to find you, just keep on doing what you’re doing now…giving up!”

Turning away from her friends, Dawn started to walk along the line of the fence; she didn’t know where she was going or what she was going to do when she got there. But, it had to be better than sitting there waiting for the bosses to come and beat her to death and end up in a hole like those other girls had. Having walked about a dozen yards, Dawn glanced over her shoulder to see, Ace, Society and Rabbit following behind her, Society looked her in the eye and gave a weak smile.

“Well as long as y’know y’own mind, Cool Hand,” she said slowly, “an’ what you said about not ever bein’ able to fuck agin…well it made me think.”

“Right,” Dawn felt her voice catch in her throat, “good, let’s keep going.”

0=0=0=0

Trotting through the woods with her hounds ranged out in front and to either side, Boss Paula looked up through the trees to see the sun high in the sky.

“Halt!” she called loudly enough for the hounds to hear her, she came to a halt herself and glanced at her wrist watch; it was nearly one o’clock.

Taking a canteen from the pouch on her belt she unscrewed the top and took a long pull on the warmish water inside. As she did so she turned to look at Boss Godfrey who stood, looking as fresh as a daisy a couple of paces behind her; he didn’t look as if he’d just run ten miles, in fact he looked just about how he normally did a sort of caricature of a normal human being.

“Whatever,” Boss Paula said quietly to herself as she put away her canteen.

The hunt had been going very well, they’d caught and killed more than half the escaped bitches and The Lord was well pleased. It would soon be time for her to think about going to catch Cool Hand and her friends. Almost as soon as the thought entered her mind another thought, which did not come from her mind sprang into being in her consciousness.

“Sister Paula,” the voice seemed to echo around her head.

“I hear you Lord,” Boss Paula replied aloud although she didn’t need to; she really only had to think the words but she found it easier to say them as if she was talking to a real person standing in front of her.

“I am well pleased with your work,” the voice echoed like it was coming out of a deep cave when it was in fact coming from Boss Godfrey who acted like a conduit for The Lord’s words.

“Thank-you, Lord,” Boss Paula felt a warm wave of pleasure wash over her body making her gasp and want to touch herself.

“It is time to catch my chosen ones,” the voice of the Lord intoned, “they are not far away and my hounds will lead you to them.”

“I’ll get right on that Lord,” Boss Paula nodded her head; she’d do anything for her Lord.

“You are my best servant, Sister Paula,” continued the Lord, “and if you succeed in this task I have set for you, your rewards will be great.”

Once again the warm feeling of pleasure filled her body and she heard herself moaning as the feeling built up inside her until it felt like she would burst. When she opened her eyes, Boss Paula found herself lying on the ground. The hounds were sitting patiently in a row a few feet away and Boss Godfrey was standing looking impassive like he usually did. Climbing to her feet, she brushed off her clothes and turned to the pack leader.

“Seek The Lord’s chosen ones,” she told the hell-creature.

The animal lifted its head to sniff the air before getting to its feet and running off between the trees followed by its fellows.

0=0=0=0

Resting against a tree, Dawn realised that for all her words earlier the time had come to admit that they were well-and-truly, royally fucked! Glancing upwards she saw that the sun had left the sky and was sinking behind the trees towards the horizon. They’d drunk the last of the bottled water they’d found in the truck some time ago and it didn’t look like they were going to get more any time soon. The only food they’d had today was the chocolate they’d eaten. They’d had hardly anything to eat yesterday after a brutal day of hard labour. They had nothing left to give; lack of all the basics to keep body and soul together had worn them down to this. Four gaunt, exhausted women sitting in a wood somewhere waiting to die.

“You did your best,” Ace dragged herself over and sat next to Dawn, “without you we wouldn’t have got even this far.”

“Yeah but what did it get us?” Dawn asked, “A few hours of freedom to run ourselves to death in?”

“You said it, Dawn,” Ace reached out and took Dawn’s hand in her own, “a few hours of freedom.”

“I failed you all, Becky,” Dawn sighed, “if we’d gone the other way in the truck maybe we’d be in that town by now.”

“I wouldn’t have had it any other way,” Ace rested her head against Dawn’s shoulder, her voice got quieter as sleep started to steal her away, “I love you Dawn, I did from the first time you talked to me, I…”

It was several moments before Dawn realised her friend had fallen asleep. So this was it; if they were lucky they’d fall asleep and never wake up. Perhaps in a hundred years time someone would find their bones and wonder what had happen, why had these four young women died here in this lonely place. If they were unlucky the bosses would find them and then work and torture them to death.

“Great choice,” Dawn sighed, “great leader you turned out to be.”

Promising herself she’d do better next time, she closed her eyes, rested her cheek against the top of Ace’s head and went to sleep. As she slept she dreamed of her mom and her sister and how, very soon, she’d feel their arms around her and she’d be safe again.

0=0=0=0

Lying in her mother’s arms, Dawn felt herself being rocked gently from side to as a low moaning noise slowly turned into the harsh roar of a diesel engine. Shifting against the pull of sleep, Dawn tried to hang on to the feelings of peace and warmth as her head rested against something soft. Maybe this was how Buffy felt when her friends had pulled her out of heaven; Dawn realised why Buffy had been so pissed at them all. It was so comfortable and warm and nice and what the hell was all that noise?

“W-what!?” Dawn woke up with a start and looked around.

It was dark, she could feel the hardness of the floor of the truck under her body, looking around she saw her friends in an untidy heap where they’d been thrown. Dawn had no recollection of how they’d all got to be here or where they were going. Pulling herself stiffly to her feet, she hung onto the mesh that covered the window of the shelter. It was dark outside; she could hear the hiss of the truck’s tyres on the wet road over the sound of the engine. Looking out of the back of the shelter she could see the headlights of the truck following them, she also saw the water bucket standing by the door.

Eagerly she rushed over to the bucket and took the lid off. Picking up the tin mug that hung from the side of the container, she drank thirstily.

“Hey guys!” She croaked and coughed then took another drink, the next time she spoke her voice sounded almost normal. “Hey guys! Wake up, water!” Crawling back to her friends, Dawn shook them awake, “Look,” she pointed at the bucket, “water!”

As they surfaced from their exhausted sleep, the women slowly realised what Dawn was talking about. They crawled as quickly as they could to the bucket and drank greedily.

“Don’t drink too much at once,” Dawn warned.

“She’s right,” Rabbit moaned quietly, “if you drink too much you’ll throw up…”

Slowly, reluctantly the three women stopped trying to drink the bucket dry and sat down on the floor of the truck.

“Where are we?” Ace was the first to ask.

“In one of the trucks, I think,” Dawn pulled herself up and sat on the hard metal bench and looked out of the window.

The night was dark and what little light there was only illuminated the ditch and fence at the side of the long straight road they were travelling down.

“We’re not in that wood anymore,” Dawn pointed out.

“You think we’re goin’ back to prison?” Society’s voice was full of hope.

“God I hope so,” breathed Ace.

Getting down on the floor again, Dawn sat between her friends as the huddled together for warmth and comfort. The next time any of them became aware of anything was when the truck pulled off the road and its tyres crunched on some sort of gravel surface. Watching and waiting in trepidation the four prisoners waited for something to happen. Were they saved or was this just a short rest-bite before some new torment began. Boots crunched on the gravel outside after the truck had stopped and someone had jumped down from the cab. A key was put into the lock that secured the door to the shelter and turned. Seconds later the door opened.

“Okay you women; get off your lazy asses an’ get down here.”

They all recognised the voice as belonging to Boss Keen. Looking around at her friends, Dawn squeezed each of their hands in a silent farewell, before crawling to the back of the truck, swinging her legs so they hung out the door and jumping down.

“Line up there, Cool Hand,” Boss Keen ordered quietly and pointed to a spot on the gravel.

Obediently, Dawn did what she’d been told to. Dragging her feet across the gravel, she was too tired to really walk properly, she noticed the spot lamps illuminating a fence with a couple of strands of rusty barbed wire on top; she saw the dim outlines of the barrack hut and cookhouse in the distance…she started to sob quietly as she realised they’d been brought back to the prison. Were they going to die or would they be allowed to live?

“Turn to your right,” Boss Keen ordered; to Dawn’s ears she almost sounded human again, at least no worse than when they’d been working digging out ditches, “Lead off to the gate, Cool Hand.”

Dawn realised as she dragged herself towards the gate that the Boss had used her name not her number, maybe they weren’t going to die after all.

0=0=0=0

“You stink,” Carla stated the obvious as she looked at the four filthy women standing in a ragged, swaying line in front of her.

Boss Keen had marched them over to the barrack hut and left them in the charge of Carla before leaving the hut and locking the door behind her.

“Get those rags off and get under the showers,” Carla ordered, “I don’t want you stinking bitches messin’ up my barracks.”

Roboticly, the women peeled off their filthy clothes and shuffled off to stand under the shower heads. Moments later the water was switched on. As she stood there with the warm water pouring down onto her head, Dawn looked down at her cut and bruised body to see a pool of brown liquid filth pool at her feet before slowly draining away. Some one passed her a bar of the harsh prison soap and she started to rub it over herself peeling off layer upon layer of dirt until she was her normal colour again and not the dirty grey she had been. They stood under the water letting it revive them as it rinsed away the last of the soap and dirt. Eventually, Carla switched off the water and threw them each a towel.

“Get yourselves dried off, I’ve got something for you to eat,” Carla told them, “then get into your bunks. Don’t worry about your clothes you’ll be issued new tomorrow.”

As Dawn wiped herself down with the towel, she realised that in her own rough way, Carla was treating them more like survivors than prisoners. When she’d finally realised where she was, Dawn had expected another beating or at least a night spent in the box as punishment for escaping. But no, they’d been allowed to clean up; they were going to be given something to eat and maybe even rest. Wrapping the towel around herself, Dawn walked unsteadily over to the table were four plates of beans sat with spoons next to them. Slumping down onto the bench she spooned the beans into her mouth and swallowed not really tasting them as they went down her throat and into her belly. After eating they were told to get into their bunks. Someone helped heave Dawn up onto her bunk. Lying on her bed, she felt the soft cotton sheets against her skin. Her belly was full, she was clean and she had a bed to sleep in again. This, she thought, must be heaven.

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

The bell rang jolting, Dawn from a deep sleep; groaning she rolled over in her bunk and groaned once again. Every muscle in her body protested at her every movement, she felt as stiff as a board and her back ached dully from all the beating she’d received over the last three days. Stealing herself against the pain that movement would bring her, she slowly climbed down from her bunk to find herself face to face with Society.

“I feel like death warmed up,” Society announced quietly.

“Warmed up?” Dawn forced a smile, “You should be so lucky, I feel like I died and got embalmed.”

Pulling on new panties, jeans and t-shirt taken from her locker, Dawn picked up her washing things and made her way slowly to the washroom. It was only while she was brushing her teeth that she realised it was light outside.

“What’s going on?” Dawn asked Rabbit who was standing at the sink next to hers.

“What d’ya mean?” Rabbit turned slightly to look at her friend.

“It’s totally day light,” Dawn mumbled around her toothbrush.

“Fuck me!” Gasped Rabbit as she realised that it wasn’t just the room’s lights that were illuminating the scene.

“No thanks, you’re so not my type,” Dawn pointed out with a grin.

“Hey guys,” Rabbit called in a loud whisper, “look outside.”

There were exclamations of surprise from Ace and Society as it suddenly dawned on them that dawn had been and gone.

“Come on you women,” Carla’s voice cut into their excited whisperings, “get over to the cookhouse and hit them beans, there’s work to be done!”

0=0=0=0

They very soon realised that they were the only women left in the compound. There was, of course Carla; Cookie, the woman who ran the cookhouse, Dog Woman and Babalu. While they were all prisoners they appeared to be more trusted by the Captain and the bosses and were important to the running of the camp. Of the other camp inmates, the women who spent their days digging out ditches, Dawn, Ace, Society and Rabbit were the only ones left. After finishing their breakfast the four friends made their way back to the barracks where they found Carla waiting for them.

“Cool Hand, Rabbit,” Carla pointed to the two women in question, “get y’selves some brooms y’on clean up duty in the barracks.” Carla turned to Ace and Society, “Get y’selves back to the cookhouse an’ help Cookie to clean up that pigsty.”

Casting each other puzzled glances the four friends went about their business. Later when it was about mid-morning and Carla had told Dawn and Rabbit to take a break from their cleaning duties. The two friends approached the ‘Floor Walker’ to try and find out what was going on.

“Here,” Carla handed them each a tin mug of coffee, before going and sitting down at the table by the boss’s station in the corner of the barracks.

“Hey, Carla,” Dawn sipped her coffee as she nonchalantly walked over to where Carla sat, “what the hells going on here?”

“What d’you mean?” Carla looked up and frowned.

“What do I mean!?” Dawn sat down across the table from Carla, “One minute the bosses are acting like concentration camp guards trying to work and beat us all to death. The next,” Dawn glanced around the empty barracks, “it’s all easy duties.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Carla shrugged as she sipped her own coffee.

“Okay then,” Dawn said slowly casting Rabbit a warning glance, “where’s everybody else, why are we the only ones still here…still alive?”

“Ha!” Carla laughed her face splitting into a wide grin, “Is that all you’re worried about.”

“Well, yeah!” Dawn lifted an eyebrow waiting for an explanation.

“It’s nothin’ to fret y’self over,” Carla said still smiling, “everybody else was sent to the Farm.”

“Oh, the Farm,” Dawn nodded her head and glanced at Rabbit as if to say, ‘who’s she trying to kid’.

“Yeah,” Carla nodded her head slowly, “Captain decided it was time to clean house, people were getting lazy so he sent them to the Farm.”

“Why not us?” Rabbit wanted to know.

“Don’t know,” Carla shrugged her shoulders, “you’ll have to ask the Captain. Anyway,” Carla drank the last of her coffee, “between you an’ me…” the woman looked around as if checking no one else was listening, “...you’re probably better off here.” Putting down her mug, she stood up, “Hey,” she cried good naturedly, “you trying to keep me talking so ya don’t have to work?”

Shaking their heads in denial, Dawn and Rabbit climbed to their feet.

“Right,” Carla started to issue her orders, “strip off all the spare beds and empty all the lockers. Take the blankets to the store and take the sheets and clothes over to the laundry an’ wash ‘em. Any personal stuff you find you can keep the owners won’t be needing it anymore.”

Hesitating, Dawn and Rabbit looked at each other.

“Come on,” Carla aimed a half-heated kick at Rabbit’s butt, “git!”

0=0=0=0

After lunch, Dawn and Rabbit were hanging out laundry on the lines strung up between the trees behind the barracks. As they worked they speculated uselessly on the events of the last few days. It was all pretty pointless trying to work anything out because they had so little information to work with. Having hung out the last of the laundry the two young women were just collecting up the laundry baskets and taking them back to the laundry when they saw Boss Keen heading towards them.

“Hey, Cool Hand, Rabbit,” Boss Keen called pleasantly enough, “Captain wants to see you.”

“Sure thing Boss,” Casting each other worried glances the two young women put down their loads of baskets and walked over to join the boss.

Setting off across the grass towards the gate, Dawn and Rabbit followed the boss all the time wondering what was going to happen to them now. They cast each other fearful glances as the compound boss on the gate opened up and let Boss Keen and the two inmates out. Boss Keen led them over to the admin building where the Captain had his office. Seeing Society and Ace standing in the shade of the veranda, Dawn didn’t know whether to feel relieved or scared; would they all be ending up in a shallow grave by the end of the day? Just as Boss Keen was leading Dawn and Rabbit up to the house, Boss Paula came out of the front door and stood watching the prisoners for a moment.

“Okay, Boss Keen,” Boss Paula said, “You can leave them with me now.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Keen touched the brim of her hat to the senior boss and walked off back towards the gate.

“Okay, you women,” Boss Paula indicated that the four women should form up in a straight line. “The Captain wants to tell you somethin’.” She explained, “You don’t talk unless you’re spoken to and if you do talk you’ll be right respectful an’ remember to call the Captain, Captain, understand?”

Everyone nodded.

“Okay,” Boss Paula opened the door, “march in turn to your left then stand with your toes on the line in front of the Captains desk…now march!”

Following behind Society who was first in line, Dawn marched into the cool office, she followed Society as she turned to the left and came to a halt with the toes of her boots on the white line on the floor; the Captain looked up from behind his desk. Like everything else in the room, the desk looked like it belonged to a by-gone era. Everything looked worn and well used; even the telephone on the Captain’s desk looked a good fifty years out of date. 

The blinds on the window were half closed making the interior of the office dark and forbidding. An ancient air-conditioner wheezed asthmatically in the corner as it blew out a weak trickle of cold air and flies buzzed lazily in the beams of sunlight that shone through the cracks in the window blinds. The Captain sat behind his desk looking up at the four young women in front of him. Dressed in his usual uniform of white shirt and khaki pants, he sweated ever so slightly as he sat motionless in his chair.

“I’ve bin told,” began the Captain without preamble, “that you women have bin askin’ were all your buddies are.”

Mindful of what she’d been told, Dawn didn’t speak although she dearly wanted to.

“Well,” Captain Stother sighed, “there ain’t no big mystery; they all got themselves sent to the Farm.” He paused and gave the women a long calculating look, “Now you’re probably wonderin’ why weren’t you sent to the Farm too? Well that’s an easy one too,” Captain Stother smiled showing crooked, tobacco stained teeth, “there just wasn’t any room for you, but don’t worry you’ll be next to go when there’s room.”

Again the Captain paused as if he was ordering his thoughts very carefully.

“The reason I’m tellin’ you all this,” Stother explained slowly, “is we’re gonna be getting a whole new bunch of prisoners over the next few days an’ I don’t want you women spreadin’ any rumours or lies that might cause trouble, you hear me?”

The friends nodded their heads and mumbled ‘Yes Captain’.

“Good,” Stother smiled and nodded his head, “good, I’m glad to see we understand each other,” Captain Stother looked over to where Boss Paula stood in the corner of the room. “Boss Paula would you be so kind as to take these women back to their work? Then if you wouldn’t mind could you come back, I need to talk to you about the new prisoners.”

0=0=0=0

Looking up from the ledger he was working on, Captain Stother called for whoever it was to come in. The door opened to reveal Boss Paula.

“Ah, good,” Captain Stother put down his pen, “Come in Sister Paula and take a seat,” he pointed to a hard wooden chair in the corner of the office.

“Captain,” Boss Paula, nodded her head and crossed the room to move the chair to be in front of the Captain’s desk before sitting down.

“Do ya think we’re gonna have trouble with those four?” Stother pointed a finger in the general direction of the compound.

“No Captain,” Boss Paula took her hat off and ran her fingers through her hair glad to be in the relative cool of the Captain’s office, “at least not just yet. I reckon they’re just too thankful to still be alive right now. Give ‘em a few weeks to get over it an’ we might have trouble.”

“Hmm,” Captain Stother glanced down at his ledger for a moment not really seeing it; his mind was working on the problem of the four survivors of the last big hunt. “Well, hopefully the Lord will take them well before it gets to be a problem.” Captain Stother leant back in his chair and smiled at his senior boss, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, now tell me about the new-meat.”

“Right Captain,” Boss Paula took a moment to marshal her thoughts, “over the next week or ten days we should take delivery of forty-seven new prisoners, which puts us over strength for a while.”

“Will that be a problem?” Captain Stother wanted to know.

“I don’t think so,” Boss Paula replied slowly, “there’ll probably be a couple we’ll want to transfer to the Farm straight away. I was also thinking of having an annex built onto the barracks to house Carla, Cookie, Babalu and Dog Woman, if that’s alright with you?”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Stother nodded his head, “get on with it as soon as you can.” Captain Stother leant across his desk and licked his lips in anticipation, “Now what do we know about the new-meat?”

“Mostly teenagers this time, Captain,” Boss Paula told him from memory, “all from out of state plus a couple of foreigners.”

“Is that such a good idea?” Captain Stother asked, “I don’t want foreign embassy people coming ‘round askin’ darn fool questions.”

“Don’t worry, Captain,” Boss Paula replied reassuringly, “anyone comes round askin’ after them they’ll hit a blank wall. No one will have seen or heard of them, eventually it’ll just be assumed they vanished, it happens all the time.” Boss Paula shrugged, “Young girl foolishly decides to hike across a foreign country, what do you expect?”

“Good, good,” nodded the Captain, “and the others?”

“They’ve all been arrested for petty crimes,” Boss Paula explained, “and sentenced to two to five years; mostly runaways that sorta thing. After a few months people will stop looking for them if anybody was bothering in the first place; usual pay offs were made to cover our asses.”

“Excellent,” agreed the Captain. “Now what about the work contracts?”

“We’ve fallen behind on the work for the State,” Boss Paula admitted, “for obvious reasons. I’ll have to work ‘em hard to catch up.”

“I don’t suppose the Lord has a problem with that Sister,” Stother chuckled slowly, “but keep any beatings to a minimum and only use the canes for now. It’ll be a while before the Lord will want to call them all to him.”

“And the chosen four?” Boss Paula asked.

“Yes,” Captain Stother thought for a moment, “might be best if we kept them separate from the new-meat as much as possible. Drive a wedge between them as it were. Don’t beat on them too much, give them the easy jobs and bigger rations make the new-meat hate them, you understand?”

“Yes Captain,” Boss Paula was an expert in turning the prisoners against each other, “and Summers’ sister? ‘The Slayer’, is she really dead?”

“As a door nail!” Laughed Stother, “Made it look like an accident too, I doubt we’ll have packs of slayers down here looking for vengeance.”

“And Cool Hand?” Boss Paula asked.

“As far as we know, Summers senior never told anyone she’d tracked her little sister down,” Stother shrugged again and spread his hands in a hopeless gesture, “you’d have thought she’d have told someone but it looks like she kept the news to herself…was there anything else we need to go over?”

Captain Stother started to bring the meeting to a close.

“Just one thing,” Boss Paula picked up her hat and stood up, “a replacement for Boss Shorty? I’m gonna need someone who’s in the ‘family’ out on the road with all this new-meat.”

“Let me see,” Captain Stother searched around in a desk drawer until he found an official form, “ah yes, here we are!” Stother held up the form and cast his eye over it. “Officer Maddy Smith, from the State Police, she’d bin workin’ with us on the procurement side of things for the last five or six years, she was inducted as a full Sister last month, we were just waiting for a slot to open before moving her up.” Stother nodded his head slowly, “good woman by all accounts, true servant of the Lord.”

“Glad it’s another woman, Captain,” Boss Paula explained, “Boss Shorty took too much interest in the women for my likin’.”

“And the Lord agreed with you,” Stother laughed, “Boss Shorty won’t be sticking his dick anywhere now…new boss starts Sunday so you can show her ‘round.”

“Thanks, Captain,” Boss Paula put her hat back on, “I’ll get back to work then.”

“Indeed,” Captain Stother looked down at his ledger again, “and thank-you Sister.”

0=0=0=0

On Saturday, Dawn, Ace, Society and Rabbit, were woken just after dawn and sent for their breakfast before being taken out to the Interstate to cut grass and pick up trash. The day was sunny but not too hot, the traffic whizzed by them the occupants of the cars and trucks hardly paying any attention to the women working in their day-glow orange waistcoats.

Compared with what had happened to them lately all four women thought of this kind of work as a holiday. They didn’t even have to bend down to pick up the trash; they’d each been given a stick with a long spike on the end with which to spear the road side trash. Anything too big to be speared would have to be picked up by hand of course but it wasn’t anything like the hard labour of the last few days.

Well before noon, Boss Keen, who was in charge of the little work detail called an end to the day’s work. After dumping the bags of trash by the side of the road for later collection; the prisoners put the tools into the back of the pick-up. Only having four prisoners on the detail it had been thought foolish to send out the usual prisoner transport trucks so the four convicts rode in the back of the pick-up with the tools. Sitting in the back of the pick-up they felt the breeze pass through their hair as they were driven back to the compound. After a half hour drive they drove into the parking lot and got out of the pick-up; they were just collecting up the tools to take them to one of the storage huts when they turned to see one of the transporter trucks drive in behind them.

As they waited for Boss Keen to lead them over to the gate they saw a dozen young women climb down from the back of the truck and mill around in the parking lot as the compound bosses tried to get them into some sort of order.

“Looks like the new-meat’s arrived,” Dawn said quietly to her friends.

“Holidays over,” Ace pointed out, “Come Monday we’ll be diggin’ ditches again.

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

Sitting on the steps in front of the cookhouse, Dawn let Society massage the knots out of her shoulders. Over by the barracks the two ditch-girls who’d attacked Rabbit the night before stood surrounded by their friends psyching themselves up for the coming fight. Frowning a little, Dawn listened with half an ear while Ace gave her, what she thought was, useful advice; to be honest what Ace didn't know about fighting, Dawn could write a book about. Something was bothering Dawn and her mind kept going back to it like a tongue sort out a broken tooth; eventually she felt she really needed to say something.

“Rabbit,” Dawn turned to her other friend, “last night when those two bitches jumped you, they just totally attacked right?”

“Right,” Rabbit agreed with a nod of her head, her lip was still swollen from where one of the ditch-girls had punched her.

“You didn’t provoke them in anyway?” Dawn had been there and she didn’t remember Rabbit even saying anything after she’d left her and headed for the washroom.

“Never said a word,” Rabbit confirmed with a shake of the head, “they just jumped me as I passed by, why’d you ask?”

“Just wondering,” Dawn got up slowly; it was nearly time for the fight to begin.

“What’s on y’mind, honey?” Society stood up behind Dawn and placed her hand on her friends shoulder.

“I was thinking,” Dawn gazed over at the excited gang of ditch-girls, they certainly looked eager for the fight to start, perhaps too eager?

“You think it was a set up?” Ace asked as she got up from the steps and went to stand next to her friends.

“Could be,” Dawn nodded, “they had no cause to attack Rabbit like that, particularly with me just like sitting there a few feet away…”

“Maybe, they were after you, honey,” Society spoke quietly, “don’t know why, though.”

“Unless they were put up to it,” Rabbit ran a finger over her swollen lip as she spoke.

“Who by?” Ace wanted to know.

“Who else,” Dawn nodded towards where Boss Paula and Boss Godfrey where taking up position on the ‘fighting ground’.

“You think?” Rabbit scratched her head.

“But why?” Added Ace, “What have they got to gain, I mean the betting’s been pretty heavy on this fight but honestly the total cash involved can’t be more that twenty or thirty dollars.”

“I expect they have their reasons, honey,” Society watched the bosses through narrowed eyes, “I just hope it don’t end up with us poor chickens in the box or worse.”

“Come on,” Dawn sighed as she started for where the bosses stood, “let’s get this over with.”

0=0=0=0

Walking over to where the ditch-girls had formed themselves into a wide circle, Dawn couldn’t help but notice the looks of hostility her friends and herself were receiving. These women wanted blood, preferably hers. Looking around the wide circle of angry faces, Dawn saw Boss Paula push her way through the crowd with Boss Godfrey following behind her like some silent watch dog. After Boss Paula had given her little speech about the rules and the consequences of breaking them, she called Dawn over for a private word.

“You reckon you can take these two bitches, Cool Hand?” Boss Paula asked quietly over the growing noise of the ditch-girl’s supporters.

“No trouble,” Dawn replied confidently. 

“Even both together?” Boss Paula asked with a nasty gleam in her eye.

“Hey, Boss…” Dawn began but was brought up short by the boss.

“Look, Cool Hand you an’ your friends have been having it easy right?” Boss Paula watched Dawn carefully waiting for her reply.

“Yeah,” Dawn replied hesitantly, she didn’t like where this was leading.

“You’d like that to go on, right?” Boss Paula smiled as, Dawn nodded her head. “Alright then it will as long as you fight whenever we tell you to.”

“Bitch!” Dawn spat the word out, she’d guessed that their present situation was too good to be true; there was always a price to pay.

“That’s Boss Bitch to you Cool Hand,” Boss Paula smiled, “an’ just in case you’re thinkin’ of running. It’ll be your friends who’ll suffer not you.”

“Yeah okay,” Dawn sighed, “you’ve got me, what do you want me to do to these too,” Dawn gestured to the two teenage girls she was going to fight.

“Make it quick,” Boss Paula licked her lips in anticipation, “I want this fight over with and them bitches,” Boss Paula gestured to the girls who were howling for Dawn’s blood, “terrified of you.”

“But then no one will fight me,” Dawn pointed out believing she’d seen the flaw in the boss’s plan.

“Who said I was goin’ to give anyone the choice?” Boss Paula shrugged as she started to step away from Dawn, “Enough talk, get on with it Cool Hand and remember what I said.”

Once Boss Paula had stepped back, Dawn found herself alone in a circle of contorted yelling faces, facing the two ditch-girls who the bosses had set up to fight her. Backing away from the girl’s Dawn took a few moments to study them; they were both young, and tough looking, but Dawn had the experience and the training. Two were never as co-ordinated as one and they probably expected her to stay on the defensive.

“Wrong,” Dawn smiled as she went into the attack.

The two teenagers hadn’t spread out far enough so it was easy enough for Dawn to step between them and slash the girl on her right across the throat with the edge of her hand. The speed of her attack had confused the second girl so she wasn’t prepared when Dawn kicked her feet out from under her. Following through with kick, Dawn turned back to face the first girl. The teenager was down on her knees clutching her throat, the blow had been just powerful enough to disable but not kill. Changing feet, Dawn struck out and kicked the girl in the belly. Falling the rest of the way to the ground she lay there puking up her lunch.

Turning to face the second girl once more, Dawn was just in time to see a glint of metal as a sharpened spoon was driven towards her stomach. Catching the outstretched arm under her own, Dawn forced the girl’s arm back against her elbow joint making her cry out in pain and forcing her to drop her weapon. Drawing back her right arm, Dawn struck her opponent with the heel of her hand on her forehead as hard as she could. The ditch-girl’s eyes rolled up into her head as her body went limp and headed for the ground; Dawn smiled in triumph. Her blow had been hard enough to scramble the girl’s brains, a couple of inches lower she would have killed her.

Turning back to the first girl, Dawn saw she’d got herself to her feet and was moving in to the attack. Not wasting a second, Dawn closed the distance and punched the girl in the gut. As she doubled over, Dawn grabbed her by the back of the head and brought up her knee at the same time; feeling the girl’s nose break against her knee, Dawn stepped back to watch her fall. Both the ditch-girls were down and out and Dawn noticed how quiet it was for the first time.

Stepping forward, Boss Paul proclaimed Dawn the winner and warned anybody of the consequences of trying to exact any private vengeance and of not paying their gambling debts.

“Boss Godfrey,” Boss Paula looked over her shoulder at the silent boss and gestured to the groaning losers. “Deal with this shit will you?”

Stepping forward, Boss Godfrey took each of the girl’s by the t-shirt and half carried, half dragged them towards one of the huts on the edge of the compound.

“Now listen up you stupid bitches,” Boss Paula called loudly getting everyone’s attention, “those two stupid whores ain’t bein’ punished for losin’.” Boss Paula watched all the faces that were turned towards her, “They’re bein’ punished for cheating,” Boss Paula bent and picked the sharpened spoon up out of the dust, “I don’t allow cheating in my compound.”

By the time Boss Paula had finished speaking; Boss Godfrey had dragged the two girls to a hut unlocked the door and bundled them inside. Five minutes after Boss Godfrey had closed the door the screaming began; it didn’t stop until well after lights out.

Walking towards the barrack hut, Dawn tried to block out the cries of the ditch-girls as Boss Godfrey did heaven knew what to them; Dawn laughed bitterly. Heaven might know what was happening to those two losers, but heaven wasn’t about to lift a finger to stop it. Feeling Society put her arm around her waist to support her, Dawn turned to look at the one time prostitute and blackmailer.

“You know something?” Although neither girl had touched Dawn in the fight, she still felt drained and was grateful for Society’s support.

“What’s that, honey?” Society replied soothingly.

“In the words of the song,” Dawn joked tiredly, “We’ve gotta get out of this place.”

“If it’s the last thing we ever do?” Added Rabbit from the other side of Dawn.

“Yeah,” Dawn stopped and looked back at the hut where Boss Godfrey had taken the girls; although the sounds coming from the hut were muffled and indistinct it sounded like the teenagers were pleading and begging Boss Godfrey to stop whatever it was he was doing to them. Shaking her head, Dawn doubted it would do them any good; she was right moments later the screaming started again.

0=0=0=0

“This is the life,” Dawn sighed as she lay back against Ace’s breasts.

They were under the trees behind the barracks hut and it was Sunday afternoon. The compound was quiet, particularly after the two girls who’d fought and lost against Dawn had been released from Boss Godfrey’s clutches. They’d both been badly beaten and probably raped; it was touch and go if they’d be on there feet by start of work on Monday morning.

Sitting with her back against a tree and Dawn between her legs resting her body against Ace’s chest; the cardsharp had one hand under Dawn’s t-shirt while her other hand worked between Dawn’s legs slowly bringing her to a climax.

“You’ve changed ya tune,” Ace murmured softly into Dawn’s hair, “I seem to remember someone saying they weren’t into girl on girl action.”

“A girl can change her mind can’t she?” Dawn pouted as Ace’s nimble fingers slipped inside her, “Owww!” Dawn wriggled her butt against her friend as she moaned with pleasure. “It’s better than doing it yourself and who’s to say I’m thinking of you?”

“Oh that’s just mean,” Ace pinched one of Dawn’s nipples making her squeak with a mixture of pain and excitement.

“Ow…OW!” Gasped Dawn, “Just there! That’s the spot!”

Dawn’s hips writhed as Ace’s finger redoubled there efforts; closing her eyes and letting the waves of pleasure build and wash over her, Dawn was indeed thinking of someone other than Ace. Lying there, she imagined her fantasy husband screwing her in a big soft, warm bed. The fantasy of a home, a family and a man who loved her were Dawn’s escape from the horrors of the prison camp; they helped keep her sane and gave her a reason to keep fighting even when things looked hopeless.

Gasping, Dawn bit down on her hand to stop herself crying out too loudly and drawing the attention of the bosses to herself and her friend. Her climax continued to build and build until it finally broke over her leaving her panting and feeling drained, but in a good way. Turning her head she kissed Ace on the lips.

“Give me a minute,” Dawn whispered, “I’ll catch my breath then I’ll do you.”

“Take your time,” Ace held Dawn tightly to her, “I’m fine just to sit here like this.”

“Hey!” Dawn turned and frowned at her friend, “you saying my tongue isn’t good enough?”

“Typical hetro,” Ace sighed, “its all about the sex with you, you’re as bad as a man.”

“Watch it,” Dawn warned jokingly, “or I’ll give you a good lickin’ in more ways than one.”

“No,” Ace snuggled up to Dawn, “some times its nice just to sit and hold someone…but the sex is good too.”

Pushing herself to her knees, Dawn turned to face Ace.

“Now what can I do for you today ma’am?” Dawn reached out and started to undo Ace’s jeans.

“Oh,” Ace made herself comfortable as Dawn pulled her jeans down around her knees, “just the usual…”

Just as Dawn was going to bury her tongue between the other girl’s legs a shout from the direction of the barracks stopped her in her tracks.

“Society!” Ace glanced around and saw the young woman run through the grass towards them, “You must have the worst timing ever!”

“Sorry girls!” Society stood panting above them, “but I’ve bin huntin’ high an’ low for y’all.”

“What’s up?” Dawn climbed to her feet as she zipped up her jeans, she had a feeling the fun was over for the day.

“Boss Paula wants to see us all,” Society explained a worried frown on her face.

“Shit!” Dawn cursed before looking at Ace who was now standing next to her, “looks like I’m going to have to owe you one.”

“Don’t worry,” Ace put her arm around Dawn’s shoulder, “I’ll be here to collect.”

“Hey come on,” Society started to head off towards the barracks, “enough of this girl bonding shit, Boss Paula is waiting.”

0=0=0=0

Running around to the front of the barracks the three women found Rabbit already there along with Boss Paula and her ever faithful shadow, Boss Godfrey who was holding four sets of leg irons. The strange silent man looked no worse for his exertions of the previous night, unlike his two victims. Lining up with her friends, Dawn glanced at the man. It seemed like a dreamlike memory, something she’d seen while the bosses had been trying to work her to death on that damned track. Boss Godfrey, his uniform soaked with muddy water searching for his shades with sightless, hollow eye sockets. A call from Boss Paula brought Dawn back to the here and now.

 

“Right you women,” Boss Paula began as Boss Godfrey started to move along the short line, “the Captain has decided that the time has come to transfer you to the farm.”

The leg irons locked around Dawn’s ankles as she glanced to either side at her friends.

“Excuse me Boss,” Dawn risked speaking; when Boss Paula didn’t hit her she drew courage and continued with what she wanted to say, “But, you mean now?”

“That’s right, Cool Hand,” Boss Paula shrugged, “seems like you ain’t gonna get to fight no-more,” Boss Paula shook her head sadly. “An’ I was gonna get in an audience for your next fight too, but, there you go!”

“What about our stuff?” Ace wanted to know.

“You won’t need it,” Boss Paula told them simply, “alright, no more talking.” Boss Paula turned to Godfrey, “Lets get these women into the van.”

0=0=0=0

Standing on the steps of the barracks, Carla watched as the four women shuffled towards the gate and the black van that waited for them out on parking lot. Shaking her head Carla told herself that she’d miss, Cool Hand and her friends, she knew she’d never see them again. No one ever came back from the farm, just like no one was ever released from the compound they’d all go to the farm or die on one of the Captain’s special jobs. In the fifty years she’d been here she’d forgotten how many women she’d seen pass through the prison.

“Oh-well,” turning she walked slowly back into hut, “the Lord gives and the Lord taketh away.”

In the distance she heard the van drive off, the next time she saw it arrive, it would be here for some other women, but it would never come for her, she was here for eternity.

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

“…I’m going to call my first daughter, Buffy, after my sister,” Dawn explained, “I don’t see why she should be the only one to suffer!”

Everyone laughed; Dawn and her friends where sitting in the back of the prison van, the space was crowded and dark the interior only being illuminated by one dim little light bulb. They’d been driving for what felt like hours but was probably only one or two. About last light the van had pulled over and Boss Paula had let them out so they could relieve themselves at the side of the road. Before they got back into the van they’d all been given a mug of water and a piece of cornbread. As soon as they’d finished their frugal meal they were chivvied back into the van and the journey continued. After a while it fell to Dawn to entertain her friends with her plans for when she got out of prison.

“My second daughter,” Dawn explained earnestly to the sceptical faces all around, “I’ll call Joyce after my mom…or maybe Joy, whatever, now the third girl…”

“Just how many kids are you fixin’ on having, Honey?” Society asked.

“Oh loads,” Dawn reassured her, “at least a soccer team’s worth.”

“You keep going on about daughters,” Ace pointed out, “chances are you’re gonna have a few boys as well. What y’gonna call them?”

“Ah-ha!” Dawn grinned, “Thought of that,” she smiled broadly, “that’s going to be my husband’s…”

“Whoever he might be,” Rabbit reminded everyone that Dawn’s future husband (a paragon of virtue judging by the way Dawn described him) had not been picked out and probably didn’t even exist anywhere other than in Dawn’s imagination.

“Whoever he might be,” Dawn agreed, “it’ll totally be his job to name any boys that come along.”

“You do know that giving birth ain’t exactly a joy ride?” Ace pointed out.

“Won’t matter,” Dawn explained, “my husband will be so perfect that he’ll make up for any discomfort by telling me how beautiful I am even when I’m fat and bloated and…”

The van bounced violently dislodging the women from their seats and throwing them onto the floor.

“What the fuck!” Society exclaimed as she climbed back up onto her seat again; the van continued to sway and bounce but not so violently.

“Feels like we’re on a track or something,” Rabbit said quietly.

“Must be getting near this farm place,” Dawn pointed out nervously.

Moments later the van ground to a halt, there was a short pause before they started to move again. This time it felt like they were on a much smoother section of road, but the van didn’t feel as if it was moving at much more than a walking pace. After several more minutes the van came to a halt and the engine was turned off. 

In the silence that followed the four women looked at each other their eyes filled with fear and trepidation. Had they in fact arrived at ‘The Farm’ or was this just another cruel trick thought up by the bosses. Perhaps the farm was a cruel trick in itself. Although it was hard to imagine anything worse than what the prison had become over last couple of months. Over the years Dawn had learnt that if you expected the worst you were unlikely to be disappointed.

They heard the driver’s door open and the sound of footsteps walking slowly around to the rear of the van. They heard the lock being unlocked and watched as the door was slowly pulled open to reveal Boss Paula and the dark figure of Boss Godfrey standing just behind her. The first thing that Dawn noticed was that neither boss carried a shotgun or cane. They still had their handguns, however, Dawn surmised that the two bosses felt secure wherever it was they where.

“Git outta there,” Boss Paula ordered; she took a couple of steps back and rested her hand on the butt of her revolver, “move it!”

Taking the lead, Dawn shuffled the length of the van and carefully stepped down onto the road. Moving to one side to let Society out, Dawn glanced around to try and get some sort of feeling for the place. A quick examination revealed half a dozen wooden barrack huts, just like the ones at the compound, plus several smaller huts. The entire area must have been about twice the size of a football field and it was surrounded by a high fence with rolls of razor wire on top of it. Set at regular intervals around the fence and about the camp itself were spot lights that lit up the area with a yellowy-orange glow. Other than themselves and the two bosses there wasn’t another soul in sight.

“Line up here,” Boss Paula pointed to a spot on the road, quickly the prisoners shuffled over to line up; the chains of their leg irons clinking on the road surface as they moved.

“Turn to your right,” Boss Paula ordered; as usual Boss Godfrey never said a word.

Turning, Dawn saw another building she’d not noticed before. Unlike the others this one appeared to be made out of concrete and there were heavy iron bars on the windows.

“Forward march,” Boss Paula started out towards the concrete building with her prisoners shuffling along as fast as they could behind her.

0=0=0=0

Boss Godfrey walked briskly forward and had arrived at the door to the concrete building and unlocked it long before the prisoners arrived.

“Boss Godfrey,” Boss Paula said, “you deal with these, I’m going to see the Captain.”

With his usual almost imperceptible nod, Boss Godfrey watched for a moment as Boss Paula walked off towards another hut on the other side of the compound. Without saying a word he pushed open the door and gestured for the four prisoners to precede him into the building. Shuffling forward, Dawn found herself in what she imagined a military guard room looked like. There was a desk, a few filing cabinets and a couple of locked cupboards which hung from the walls. Still not saying a word, Boss Godfrey closed and locked the door behind them before crossing the room and unlocking another heavy door and pushing it open.

The open door revealed a long corridor illuminated by bare electric light bulbs that hung from the ceiling. On either side of the corridor were doors that looked suspiciously like cell doors. By the way Boss Godfrey stood and looked at them it was obvious he wanted them to go through the door. Taking the lead, Dawn shuffled forward.

“All you needed to do was ask, Boss,” Dawn announced as she hobbled passed the silent boss; the boss didn’t give any sign that he’d even heard her.

Shuffling along the corridor, Dawn passed the cell doors to her left and right; each was featureless without even a number to break up the monotony. However she did hear things coming from behind one or two of the doors. From behind one she heard the unmistakeable sounds of someone having sex; from behind another she could hear a woman sobbing. But from behind most she heard nothing at all, which in a way was worse; at least she thought it was. They were almost at the far end of the corridor, when Dawn found a cell door open, she turned to look back at Boss Godfrey who’d been following them along the corridor.

“You want us in here, Boss?” Dawn asked as she paused outside the open cell.

Again the unspeaking boss nodded his head; shrugging her shoulder resignedly, Dawn led the way into the cell. Once all four women had been herded inside the boss slammed the door closed and locked it.

“Have I mentioned how much of a bad feeling I’m getting about this?” Dawn asked her friends as she looked around the small cell.

“No,” Society replied without adding her customary ‘Honey’ to the end of her sentence.

“My bad,” Dawn admitted.

The women had really expected to have their leg irons removed, but Boss Godfrey hadn’t seemed inclined to live up to their expectations. Instead he’d put them in this small room with no window and two bunk beds. Further examination found a stainless steel toilet, sink and a tap that supplied nothing but freezing cold water. On the plus side there was a loaf of proper white bread, some cheese, four tin mugs and a pot of coffee that was surprisingly still warm.

“At least the rations are better here,” Rabbit announced as she sat down on a bunk bed and started to pour out the coffee.

“What makes you say that?” Ace, like Dawn tended to see the glass as half empty, “That might be all you get to eat here. By the end of a couple of weeks you’ll be sick of white bread an’ cheese…however in the mean time…”

Sitting down, Ace picked up a mug of coffee and drank some before attacking the bread and cheese.

“I think, Ace has got it right,” Dawn joined the others in their simple feast.

Sitting on the bottom bunks the four women ate and speculated about what was in store for them.

“Did you hear that screwing goin’ on?” Society asked as she chewed on a piece of cheese.

“I did,” Dawn nodded, “did you hear the woman crying?”

“I was sorta hoping I was imagining that, honey,” Society explained.

“Well,” Rabbit attempted to look on the bright side, “at least no ones beatin’ on us and yelling for us to work faster.”

“That probably starts tomorrow,” Ace pointed out.

“Whatever,” Dawn, as the de-facto leader thought she ought to bring these pointless speculations to an end, “lets just eat and drink everything we’ve got here. Who knows when we’ll be fed again and then get some shut-eye, everybody okay with that?”

There was muttered agreement with Dawn’s plan as everyone ate and drank as much as they could. All too soon they’d eaten all the food and drunk all the coffee. Feeling reasonably full they lay down on the bunks and tried to shade their eyes from the light in the ceiling. No sooner had Dawn got herself reasonably comfortable on the thin mattress that they all heard the door being unlocked.

Watching as the door swung open, Dawn saw Boss Godfrey standing in the corridor looking directly at her. Pointing at her he gestured for her to come with him. Rolling off the bunk and trying to ignore her wildly beating heart, Dawn hobbled out the door and waited in the corridor for Godfrey to lock the cell door behind them. 

Turning he placed his hand on Dawn’s shoulder and pushed her ahead of him down the passageway until they came to the door to the guardroom. Once again, Boss Godfrey unlocked the door urged Dawn through and then locked it behind them. He repeated the process on the door to the outside. Finding herself being steered towards the hut Boss Paula had walked off to, Dawn speculated on her likely fate. Whatever her speculations were they wouldn’t come anywhere near the reality of what was going to happen next.

0=0=0=0

After several more minutes of locking and unlocking doors and being pushed down darkened corridors Dawn found herself standing in the Captain’s office. It was an exact copy of the Captain’s office back at the compound; complete down to the wheezing old air-con unit and dead flies. Standing by the door Boss Godfrey said nothing, by this time Dawn thought she’d probably pee herself if he said anything she’d grown so used to his silence. Just as she was beginning to think everyone had forgotten about her the door opened and in walked Captain Stother and Bosses Paula and Keen. The bosses stood next to the door while the Captain walked over to his chair, sat down and gazed up at Dawn with a slight smile on his face.

“Well, Cool Hand,” Stother sighed, “you’ve finally made it to the farm…” he waited for Dawn to say something, when she didn’t he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Cat got your tongue?”

“Gotta say,” Dawn looked around the office, “what I’ve seen so far I’m totally unimpressed, apart from the cheese, that was nice.”

“Glad you liked it,” Stother replied as he sat back in his chair.

“Is this were you tell me your cunning plan?” Dawn wanted to know, “Just before you try to feed me to the sharks or cut me in half with a laser.”

“No sharks,” admitted the Captain, “or lasers,” he sighed long and hard, “but yes this is where I tell you what’s going on.”

“Oh goodie!” Dawn didn’t see why she should keep up the show of servile respect the bosses liked, she was probably going to be dead sometime soon and there didn’t seem much point. “Okay lets hear it and it better be good because I’ve heard some doozies in my time.”

“Yes I expect you have,” the Captain admitted, “anyway the night wears on and I expect you’ll be wanting to get some sleep after what I’ve told you.”

“What no maniacal laughter?” Dawn sighed, “Colour me disappointed.”

“I always knew you were special, Cool Hand, from the first time I saw you,” Stother sat forward and rested his forearms on his desk, “which is why I’m going to make you an offer I hope you won’t refuse.”

“Go on then,” Dawn sneered, “lets hear it.”

“How would you like to be ‘Boss Summers’?” Captain Stother asked.

“YOU WHAT!?” Dawn shrieked, of all the things she’d expected to hear that was the least likely.

“Yep,” Stother grinned, “you can be one of us. Boss Paula and Boss Keen they were both inmates once upon a time.”

“Should have guessed,” Dawn admitted to herself.

“All you have to do is accept The Lord as your saviour and you can be one of us,” the Captain continued, “I might add that He pays pretty good too.”

“I’m guessing we’re not talking about the Christian ‘lord’ here?” Dawn asked slowly.

“No,” Captain Stother shook his head.

“Didn’t think so,” Dawn frowned as she tried to work out what was going on here. “I'm thinking there’s a totally strong smell of sulphur somewhere around here.”

Captain Stother shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands in acceptance.

“Let me put my cards on the table,” Stother stood up and started pacing up and down behind his desk. “You see, Cool Hand there’s no other way out of here for you. No one ever leaves The Farm and you only leave the compound to go to The Farm or the cemetery. Either way you end up dead, it’s been like this for more than a hundred years, ain’t it Boss Paula?”

“Yes Captain,” agreed the boss, “I’m eighty-seven and it was going on long before I joined.”

“Boss Keen?” Stother prompted.

“Seventy-three,” she admitted.

“I’ve gotta say,” Dawn glanced over her shoulder at the two female bosses, “whatever you’re doing here it’s like way good for the complexion.”

“Before you ask,” Captain Stother halted his pacing for a moment, “I’m a sprightly one-hundred and twenty-three.”

“Gee,” Dawn said despite herself, “so what happens to my friends if I join?”

“See that’s what I like to hear, always looking out for your friends,” Stother smiled and nodded, “They’ll get to live, for a while anyway.”

“Awhile?” Dawn hinted that she wanted clarification.

“Oh,” Stother sighed tiredly as he sat down in his chair again, “they’ll be put to breeding, or be used as prostitutes.”

“Breeding?” Dawn had a feeling he didn’t mean rabbits.

“Yeah,” Stother nodded, “one kid a year until they’re too old and worn out then a quick death and goodbye mama!”

“Erm why?” Dawn held on to her temper, it was pointless to lose it now anyway.

“Do you know how much you can get for healthy, white babies?” Stother wanted to know; Dawn shook her head. “Neither do I but they tell me it’s a lot. Then there’s the paedophiles, they’re always good customers…”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Dawn swallowed loudly; Boss Paula put a bucket on the floor in front of her.

“And of course the Lord likes an offering of a kid or two every month,” Stother pointed out as if it was the most natural thing in the word.

“I’m guessing this is a dietary thing?” Dawn did her best to hold onto her last meal.

“Of course,” Stother confirmed her worst fears.

“And if I don’t agree?” Dawn breathed deeply as her stomach started to settle down.

“Oh you and your friends get hunted to death by the Lord himself,” Stother smiled, “he’s very good, no one’s got away from him in what…” Stother glanced over at Boss Paula.

“Must be near sixty years Captain,” Boss Paula informed him.

“So what do you say, Cool Hand?” Captain Stother looked up at Dawn expectantly.

“Gee,” Dawn hesitated, “that’s a hard one…agree and I get to be a Boss, with the long life, money and power of life and mainly death over all the prisoners. While at the same time my friends get to have babies until they die from it and their kids are sold off or eaten by some crazed hell god!” Dawn paused for a second. “On the other hand if I disagree we all get to be hunted and killed by the same aforementioned hell god,” Dawn scratched her head and frowned as she weighed up her chances, “do I totally have to make up my mind now? I mean this is a life changing decision you want me to make I wouldn’t want to make any rash choices here.”

Obviously, Captain Stother and his minions wouldn’t recognise sarcasm if Dawn had wrapped it around a lead pipe and then beaten them over the head with it.

“Sure,” Stother agree, “I wouldn’t want you to rush into anything,” the Captain took a deep breath, “you have until dawn, Dawn.” He glanced up at Godfrey, “Take her back to her friends Godfrey.”

0=0=0=0

It was only when Boss Godfrey was actually unlocking the door to the cell where her friends where waiting for her that Dawn saw her chance and took it. Up until that point Boss Godfrey had been his usual cautious self. He never let Dawn get too close to him; he was always very careful about locking and unlocking doors. But this time when he came to unlock the cell door he stepped in front of Dawn and turned his back on her.

Reaching out, Dawn took hold of the butt of Boss Godfrey’s revolver and pulled it from its holster. Sensing Dawn’s movement and feeling the weapon being pulled from off his hip he turned to confront her. Ramming the revolver into the boss’s stomach she pulled the trigger twice. The sound of the shots was muffled by Godfrey’s belly but they were still pretty loud, she needed to get herself and her friends out of here and fast; Dawn pushed open the cell door to see her friends standing there with shocked looks on their faces.

“We need to get outta here guys,” she told them, “fast!”

0=0=0=0

Over in Captain Stother’s office, the captain looked at his watch when he heard the gun shots.

“Faster than I expected,” Stother observed quietly, “sounds like she’s made her decision.”

“Shall I call the Lord, Captain?” Boss Paula asked.

“No,” Stother shook his head, “not just yet there’s plenty of time. After all they’re entitled to a full hour’s head start from when they leave the farm.”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

“We need to get outta here guys,” Dawn told her friends urgently, “fast!”

Much to Dawn’s surprise her friends just stood there staring at her in shock with their mouths hanging open.

“Come on!” Dawn squeaked almost wetting herself as the full realisation of what she’d done suddenly hit her; if they didn’t get out of this place soon they were all soooo dead!

“You shot him,” Ace took a hesitant step towards Dawn; “you shot Boss Godfrey!”

“Yeah what of it?” Dawn was about ready to go and leave her friends behind she was so scared.

“You shot Boss Godfrey!” A big smile slowly spread across Ace’s face as she realised the boss would never beat on her again.

Rushing forward, Ace wrapped her arms around Dawn and hugged her fiercely.

“You killed the bastard!” Ace sobbed into Dawn’s hair.

“Yeah,” Dawn agreed as she tried to comfort the crying woman, “and if we don’t get out of here soon, Boss Paula is going to kill us…slowly.”

“Yeah, sure,” Ace sniffed and started to relax her hold on Dawn, “we better get…”

Almost knocked down in the rush, Dawn was pressed up against the opposite wall as Society and Rabbit rushed forward and hugged her as the squealed and jumped up and down like a couple of high school cheerleaders celebrating a touch down.

“Okay, okay!” Dawn’s voice was muffled by all the female bodies pressed against hers, “you can tell me how much you love me later, now we need to go!”

“Yeah,” Society pulled herself away from Dawn and dashed the tears of joy from her eyes with the back of her hand, “Cool Hand’s right,” she bent and picked up Godfrey’s keys, “come on we better move.”

Quickly finding the right key, Society released everyone from their leg irons.

“Open the doors,” Dawn ordered as she knelt down next to Boss Godfrey’s body and took the half-dozen spare pistol rounds from his belt and put them in the pocket of her jeans.

“Doors opened!” Society called from over by the front door.”

“Great!” Dawn led the other two women along the corridor and into the guard room, “See if you can find anything useful,” she told Ace and Rabbit, “weapons, food, something to carry water in,” she threw Ace the bunch of keys before going to join Society at the door, “See anything?”

“Nerry a thang, honey,” Society whispered; she had the door open a crack and was watching the area between the concrete block and the next building.

“Let me see,” Dawn watched for a moment or two; there was no movement or sound not even the obligatory crickets chirping or the sound of a dog barking, “Whatever,” Dawn shrugged her shoulders, “if they’re waiting to gun us down when we run, at least it’ll be quick and not like what they had planned for us.”

“What d’you mean, honey?” Society cast Dawn a worried look.

“I’ll explain properly later,” Dawn sighed heavily, “but just to give you some idea. Remember all those girls that got released?”

“Uh-huh,” Society nodded her head slowly.

“They didn’t,” Dawn explained simply, “they came here. Looks like once South Marianna’s got you they don’t ever let you go…honey!”

“Oh shit,” Society breathed quietly.

“What’s up?” Ace and Rabbit joined the two women by the door, “See anything?”

“No it’s very quiet out there,” Dawn was confused but grateful, obviously the gunshots had be more muffled than she’d expected, “did you find anything we can use.”

“Only this,” Rabbit held up a two pint canteen, “I filled it up.”

“It’s weird, Cool Hand,” Ace frowned, “there’s nothin’ in any of the draws or closets, it’s like they were about to move out or somethin’.”

“Whatever,” Dawn shrugged and checked the revolver in her hand, “Damn!” she muttered after checking the cylinder.

Over the years, Dawn had become familiar with guns, mainly automatics and not big heavy revolvers like the one in her hand. However, she knew enough about them to get by. Boss Godfrey must have been one of those careful types who didn’t want to blow his own foot off by accident. As a consequence of this he kept an empty chamber under hammer. Having fired twice into Godfrey’s belly, that meant there were three rounds left in the gun and six rounds in her pocket; Dawn hoped they wouldn’t get into a gunfight.

“Okay,” Dawn shook her head trying to empty it of her imaginings of what was going to happen next, “we’re as ready as we’ll ever be, let’s go!”

Pulling open the door, Dawn stepped outside, stopping she paused to take in her surrounding before turning to her left and trotting towards the gate.

“Where is every fucker?” Rabbit wanted to know, “Where’re the guards and dogs?”

“They must think they’re right safe here, honey,” Society said as she jogged along just behind Dawn.

“Or they’ve got the prisoners so cowed that they don’t need to guard them,” Dawn pointed out.

Very soon they got to the gate and were confronted by their first challenge after leaving the guardroom. The gate was secured by a heavy chain and a large padlock.

“Keys?” Dawn asked as she turned and raised her revolver to cover the ground behind them; still no one appeared to challenge them.

“Hurry!” Rabbit gasped excitedly as Ace fumbled with the keys.

“Come on honey,” Society urged her friend on, “I’m late for my appointment at the beauty salon.”

“None of them fits!” Ace frantically tried the keys again.

“WHAT!?” Dawn shrieked, this was so unfair, just as they where about to get free a freaking, poxy, lock was going to get in their way. “Get back!” Dawn ordered as she pointed the revolver at the lock.

“What!?” Ace jumped to one side as she realised what Dawn was going to do.

Firing, Dawn looked at the lock in disbelief, she’d missed!

“Fuck sake!” Dawn spat on the ground as he pulled the hammer back with her left hand.

Aiming more carefully, mainly by keeping her eyes open, Dawn drew a bead on the lock and carefully pulled the trigger. This time the heavy slug smashed into the padlock and shattered it into a dozen pieces.

“Quick!” Dawn pushed against the gate opening it just wide enough for them to squeeze through.

Knowing that someone must have heard the two shots, Dawn urged her friends out of the camp and along the track. Running as hard and fast as she could she lead the way along the road until the lights of the camp had disappeared around a curve in the track and was hidden by the trees that grew thickly all around.

“Okay!” Dawn gasped as she slowly came to a halt, “We better not stay on the track,” she tried to control her breathing, “What I think we should do is go into the woods a ways and parallel the track for a while. Hopefully they’ll think we’ve struck out across country. If no one follows us we’ll get back onto the road later.”

“What if they have hounds?” Rabbit asked, she was hardly breathing heavily, unlike Society who was still gasping for breath.

“I didn’t hear any when we were at the camp,” Dawn replied, “so I’m guessing they don’t have any here.”

“Doesn’t mean they can’t bring some in,” Ace pointed out.

“Hey!” Society’s breasts rose and fell as she struggled to get her breath back, “Anyone would think you wanted to get caught!”

“Just sayin’, Society,” Ace smiled half-heatedly.

“Look we’ll deal with that later,” Dawn started to walk off the track, “lets move!”

0=0=0=0

Walking out onto the veranda that surrounded his hut, Captain Stother laughed quietly, this was going to be a good hunt, he told himself.

“Boss Paula,” he called over his shoulder, “you go tell the Lord that the hunt is about to begin.”

“Yes Sir, Captain,” Boss Paula walked back into the hut her boots thumping on the wooden floor.

“She has a gun,” Boss Keen pointed out.

“Won’t do her no good,” Captain Stother turned and smiled at the woman, “We have the Lord on our side.”

“Amen, Captain,” Keen nodded her head, “Amen!”

0=0=0=0

“Damn!” Dawn cursed as yet another tree branch tried to take her eye out.

This just isn’t working, she told herself. The woods on either side of the track had proved far thicker than she’d expected and not only weren’t they making much progress, she was also convinced they were lost.

“Take five, guys,” Dawn called quietly as they came out into a small clearing.

“Crap!” Gasped Society as she sat down on a fallen tree truck, “I’m pooped!”

“Pass the water round, Ace,” Dawn ordered as she rested her back against a tree and looked up to the sky, “just take a swig, don’t drink too much we don’t know how long its got to last us.”

Closing her eyes for a moment, Dawn wished, as she often had over the last few weeks that her sister was here to save her. Opening her eyes again she saw that it was defiantly lighter, the black of night had turned to the blue-grey of early dawn.

“How long do you think we’ve been on the run?” Dawn asked directing the question to no one in particular.

“Three or four hours,” Ace replied, “it’ll be full light in less than two hours.”

“How do you know this stuff?” Dawn turned to look at her friend. 

“My dark secret,” Ace smiled, “I was a Girl Scout until I was fifteen and they caught me and a friend in the same sleeping bag.”

“I’m guessing that this ‘friend’ was another Girl Scout,” Dawn grinned, “and you weren’t sleeping.”

“Not so much,” Ace admitted, “we were young, we wanted to experiment…”

“But no one else saw it like that?” Dawn suggested.

“’Bout right,” Ace nodded her head sadly, “threw me out, my mom an’ dad disowned me…”

“Say what?” Society looked aghast at Ace.

“Yep,” Ace shrugged her shoulders, “it was that kinda ville. Girls were supposed to grow up to be good wives an’ mothers.”

“Not lesbo sluts?” Rabbit observed without malice.

“Got it,” Ace agreed, “mind if we don’t talk about it any more?”

“Yeah,” Dawn agreed quickly, “time to pick it up,” she turned back to Ace, “which way?”

“I guess,” Ace paused as she looked up at the sky, “it seems lighter…hey what’s that?”

Dawn had heard it too, a sound like someone opening and closing a huge leather umbrella. Feeling the cold fingers of fear running up and down her spine, she grasped the butt of the revolver that was stuffed into the waist band of her jeans, the noise got louder as it got closer.

“What the fuck?” Rabbit reached down and picked up a length of branch from the ground and held it like a baseball bat as everyone looked around trying to find the source of the sound.

A great gust of air washed over Dawn’s face and she heard dry branches snap as something heavy landed in the clearing. Turning at the sound of Ace’s scream, Dawn saw it standing there towering over Society. It was at least ten feet tall, its skin was a dark-red-brown. It had the head of a demonic goat complete with black horns and red glowing eyes. Forcing herself to move, Dawn started to drag the revolver from her jeans as the demon started to lift a huge bronze bladed sword in its left hand.

Aware of people screaming and Society staring up at the red horror that loomed over her, Dawn fumbled with the hammer of the gun; she didn’t have the strength to pull back the hammer with her right thumb so she had to use her left hand and wasted precious seconds as the demon lifted its sword. Screaming at Society to get down, Dawn started to point the pistol at the monster’s chest. The sword cut through the air making an eerie whistling noise as it flashed with inhuman speed towards Society. 

Screaming, Dawn saw the sword slice the ex-prostitute cleanly in half, her torso spinning off to one side as her legs collapsed into the litter of the clearing’s floor. Still screaming, this time in shock at the sudden death of her friend, Dawn held the gun in both hands and fired. The heavy lead slug hit the demon squarely in the middle of it’s chest. It staggered back a little at the force of the impact and Dawn could clearly see a bright smear of lead on the monster’s skin. 

Why wouldn’t the thing go down? Dawn asked herself as she pulled back the hammer and brought the gun up into the aim again. The demon shifted its gaze from Society’s body over to Dawn and snarled at her, lifting one huge leg it stamped on Society’s remains and took a step towards Dawn. Pulling the trigger, Dawn felt her heart leap into her mouth as the hammer fell on an empty chamber; she’d forgotten to reload! Cursing herself for the fool Buffy had always suspected she was, Dawn stepped back towards the trees behind her and resisted the urge to throw the empty pistol at the demon; she still had spare rounds and there was a slim chance that she might get to use them. Tripping on a branch, Dawn fell to the ground as the demon crossed the clearing to stand over her.

“Oh god!” Dawn gasped as she looked up at the monster; she saw its enormous penis swing from side to side as it moved, she saw it start to raise its sword for the killing blow as she lay there helpless before it.

Just as the monster had raised its sword high above its head, Dawn became aware of a woman’s scream, full of fear, anger and determination. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rabbit charge across the clearing her ersatz club raised high.

“NO!” Dawn didn’t know whether she’d actually yelled the word or just thought it in her head.

Using the momentum of her wild charge, Rabbit swung her club at the demon; Dawn heard the wood splinter and break smashing the club in two against the demon’s spine. Hardly making a sound the demon turned slightly and brought it’s sword down and around to slice through Rabbit’s legs half way between her knees and her hips. Screaming in anguish and pumping blood over the clearing, Rabbit writhed in agony on the ground. Momentarily forgetting about Dawn, the demon turned, raised its sword again and thrust down pinning Rabbit to the ground through her chest like she was some bug set out for display.

“NO!” This time Dawn knew she’d screamed the word out loud; all her friends were dying, if she’d accepted the Captain’s offer they would have lived ten, fifteen more years, who knows someone might have been able to rescue them.

But now, because she’d tried to be the leader they were all going to die.

“DAWN!” Ace yelled into Dawn’s ear as she grabbed her by the shoulders and heaved her to her feet, “MOVE IT!”

Dragging Dawn behind her Ace started to push her way through the jungle of trees and branches that tried to slow them at every step. Ace didn’t know what that thing was, she wasn’t much of a fighter; when trouble reared its head, Ace ran. Doing what she knew best, Ace pulled Dawn along until she was fairly sure that the monster wasn’t coming after them.

0=0=0=0

Bursting out of the trees, Dawn and Ace threw themselves into the ditch that ran beside a track.

“W-what was that thing?” Gasped Ace as her lungs tried to drag in enough air to keep her alive.

“Demon,” Dawn managed to say as she struggled to catch her breath.

“W-what!?” Ace didn’t have enough breath to shout.

“Look,” Dawn took a deep breath and felt her heart slow a little, “demon’s exist, live with it…and that fucker looks like it’s a big, nasty, powerful one.”

“Demon’s exist?” Ace gazed off back at the wood her face a picture of disbelief, she’d seen it but like most people she didn’t believe it.

“Right,” Dawn started to eject the spent cartridges from the revolver and replace them with the spares in her pocket.

“What good’s that gonna be,” Ace jerked her head at the gun in Dawn’s hand, “I saw you shoot it the bullet just bounced off.”

“Maybe I’ll get lucky next time,” she concentrated on reloading as her hands shook violently, “maybe it’s got a venerable spot or something.” Surprisingly Dawn found herself laughing, “Perhaps I can shoot it in that great swinging dick of his?”

“Big enough target,” Ace chuckled.

“Come on,” Dawn pulled herself to her feet, “we’ll make better time sticking to the road, which way, Girl Scout?”

Glancing up and down the track, Ace picked a direction at random; she didn’t know where they were so she had a fifty percent chance of getting it right, if there was a ‘right’ of course. Suddenly she realised what it must be like to be a leader with people’s lives depending on the decisions you made. Having always been a follower, Ace had been a little lost until Dawn had turned up. The first time they’d spoken Ace knew this was a woman she could follow and had fallen in love with Dawn from that first moment.

“This way looks good,” Ace pointed down the track.

“Okay,” Down rested her hand on Ace’s shoulder for a moment before she started to trot off down the road.

0=0=0=0

By trotting and walking alternately, Dawn and Ace made good time without exhausting themselves. Of course they had no idea where they were making good time towards. For all they knew they were heading right back towards the Farm, it just felt good to be moving.

“So, demons exist?” Ace said as they were walking.

“Yep,” Dawn nodded her head, “there’s a long story to explain it all which I’ve mostly forgotten, but the short version is that they exist and there’re pissed at losing their top spot in the food chain.”

“How’d you know about this?” Ace asked.

“I used to live in Sunnydale,” Dawn explained, “and my big sister was The Slayer.”

“Slayer?”

“She was some sorta superhuman good guy,” Dawn explained, “her job was to fight the monsters.”

“Shit,” Ace shook her head in disbelief.

“I know,” Dawn agreed, “I grew up with this stuff going on all around me and I can’t live with most of it. That’s why I ran away.”

“Couldn’t deal, huh?” Ace nodded her head, “I can see how you might feel like that.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Dawn grinned, “If we get out of this I’ll tell you my story, that’ll really blow your mind!”

“Better run again,” Ace gestured down the road, “take a break at midday, huh?”

On they ran, trotting and walking until the sun was almost directly over head. Sitting on the side of the road they shared a couple of mouthfuls of water from the canteen. There was nothing to eat and the water was about half gone.

“We can’t just go on running like this,” Dawn observed as she lay back in the grass that filled the ditch, “we need food, water and a chance to sleep.”

It was Monday midday and the last time either of them had had any proper sleep was Sunday morning. The last food they’d had was the bread and cheese sometime last night; Dawn thought they’d be able to move on for the rest of the day, hopefully find somewhere to sleep tonight. But, tomorrow they’d need food and water was going to be an issue soon. Talking of water made Dawn notice her full bladder.

“Hey,” Dawn pushed herself to her feet, “I’m going to take a leak.”

“Can I watch?” Ace asked with a grin.

“Perv,” Dawn muttered as she climbed out of the ditch and headed for the tree line.

Stepping just inside the wood, Dawn pulled down her jeans and panties and after laying the revolver within easy reach she squatted down. As she did so she wrinkled her nose as she caught her own scent. What with all the running and abject terror she was beginning to stink again. Sighing with relief as her bladder emptied its load onto the forest floor, Dawn regretted the lack of toilet tissue, stood up and was just pulling up her jeans when she heard the terrible noise of the huge leather umbrella again.

Picking up the revolver she burst out of the tree line to see Ace running down the road with the demon in hot pursuit. The demon seemed to bounce along the road its huge bat like wings helping it move easily along, Dawn was sure the monster was playing with its latest victim. The demon could easily have caught Ace, but that wasn’t the way of demons, no, they wanted their fun.

Standing on the road, Dawn pulled back the pistol’s hammer, aimed and fired. Not knowing if she could hit a target, even one as big as the demon, at this range; she was counting on the shot at least distracting the demon for a moment and maybe leaving her friend alone. The bullet whistled over the demon’s head, but it didn’t slow down, it didn’t even appear to notice, it just kept after Ace.

“COME BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME, YOU BASTARD!” Dawn screamed after the monster, “COWARD!” she added for good measure.

The Demon noticed her that time, it seemed to bounce higher into the air as its wings flapped loudly. Rising into the air, Dawn saw the demon overtake Ace and almost float to the ground in front of her running friend.

“NOOOO!” Dawn screamed as she lifted the revolver again, this time she couldn’t fire for fear of hitting Ace, “LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BIG BULLY!”

Watching in horrified fascination, Dawn saw Ace try to stop as the demon suddenly appeared in front of her. The girl skidded on the loose gravel and rock of the track as her boots failed to find purchase. Unable to save herself, Ace ran onto the end of the demon’s sword. Screaming as the bronze blade entered her stomach just below her rib cage, Ace knew her time was up. Spitting blood into the monster’s face she felt herself being lifted off the ground and the sword slide through her as she slipped down the length of the blade.

“Fuck you!” she coughed blood over the demon’s chest just before her world turned black forever.

“BASTARD!” Dawn screamed as she watched the demon flick her friend’s body off his blade as if it was some piece of crap that fouled the beauty of his sword.

Lifting the pistol, Dawn fired and watched as the slug hit the demon, seemingly without any effect, she started to walk determinedly towards the monster.

“BASTARD!” she fired again, “BASTARD!” she kept walking towards the demon seeing her bullets strike its body but do little more than make him stumble. “BASTARD!” She was now only a few yards away and the demon loomed over her laughing at her ineffectual attempts at killing him.

Heaving back on the hammer one last time, Dawn took careful aim at the demon’s head, she fired and saw her last bullet glance harmlessly off one of his horns. The demon took a slow contemptuous swing at her with his sword. Dodging out of the way, Dawn threw herself to the ground and rolled across the track, coming to a halt she knelt on the ground in front of the demon and in a last act of defiance threw her empty gun at the monster’s head. 

Much to her surprise she saw the weapon strike the demon in the left eye, the demon staggered and dropped its sword. It let out a roar of pain and confusion as he started to topple over like a giant tree about to crash onto the ground.

“What the fuck!?” Dawn gasped as she watched the demon crash onto the ground sending puffs of dust up into the air, “If I’d know it was that easy…”

One after another Dawn noticed two things. Someone or something had cut the demon’s left leg off just below the knee. The other was the dark haired woman clutching a weird axe-like thing in her hands as she stood over the monster; she looked vaguely familiar to Dawn. Taking a step or two towards the demon the woman rammed the spike at the end of the axe’s handle into the demon’s eye socket. Heaving the axe left and right she scrambled the demon’s brains and pulled her blood and gore dripping weapon from the monster’s body; lifting her weapon she cut off the demon’s head with a single blow.

“Cool,” she announced with a satisfied smile and nod.

“Who…?” Dawn remained lying on the ground as she looked up at the woman, more memories were starting to rise from her fear numbed mind.

“Hey!” the woman put down the axe and turned to kneel next to Dawn, “Hey Dawnie, you remember me?”

The woman smiled down at Dawn who saw her eyes twinkle in amusement.

“Faith?” Dawn didn’t know whether she should try to run or stay where she was; last she remembered Faith was evil or dead or in prison or something.

But she wasn’t, she was here, she’d killed the big bad and was looking at her with quiet concern, Dawn didn’t think Faith was about to kill her anytime soon.

“Faith is that really you?” Stupid thing to say, Dawn knew but she couldn’t think of anything else.

“Yeah its me kid,” Faith started to help Dawn to her feet.

“Don’t call me ‘kid’,” Dawn warned, before asking hopefully, “So you’re good again?”

“Yeah,” Faith sounded a little sad and wouldn’t look Dawn in the eye for a moment, “Look I’ve got a lot to tell ya, but it’ll have to wait ‘til we get ya outta here, can ya walk?”

“I can run if you want,” Dawn took a step and made a liar of herself as she stumbled, luckily Faith was there to catch her.

“I think ya should stick to walking,” Faith advised.

Pausing, Dawn looked down at the body of her best friend.

“Sorry we didn’t get here sooner,” Faith told her gently.

“You keep saying ‘we’,” Dawn glanced at Faith for a second.

“One of the things I need to tell ya, or Giles does,” Faith explained.

“My friends they’re all…” Dawn gestured vaguely back down the track.

“We’ll find ‘em and give ‘em a good send off, Dawn,” Faith reassured her, “we found the farm place and that prison you were at, we’ve got people all over it…”

“Take me away from here, please,” Dawn drew herself up as straight as she could; she was the last of the Summers’ women, she had a reputation to uphold.

Glancing down at her friend, Ace…no her real name was Becky, Dawn let Faith lead her away knowing that she’d at least solved the problem of what she was going to call her third and forth daughters.

0=0=0=0

**Epilogue.**

_I'm going home  
Nothing's lost, all's gain  
No more fret nor pain  
No more stumbling on the way  
No more longing for the day  
Going to roam no more  
Morning star lights the way  
Restless dream all done  
Shadows gone, break of day  
Real life begun  
There's no break, there's no end  
Just a living on  
Wide awake with a smile  
Going on and on  
Going home, going home  
I'm just going home._

Dvorak, New World Symphony (Going Home, aka the ‘Hovis’ music).

**The Summers-Butler Residence, Tacoma, Washington State, 13 Years later.**

“Hey kids!” Faith laughed as a small swarm of children jostled around her legs, “Go an' bug ya Auntie Willow, will ya? Get her to do some magic tricks for ya or something.”

Screaming with delight at the idea the children rushed off to pester the red haired woman who sat on the opposite side of the pool. Sighing with relief of being free of the kids, Faith collapsed onto a sun lounger, she loved all the kids but they wore her out, she wondered how Dawn managed to control them day after day. Picking up the bottle of beer she’d placed on a nearby table, she popped the cap with her thumb. Just as she was about to take that first, wonderful mouthful of ice cold beer, Faith paused to watch Dawn walk towards her.

“Hot damn, how does she do it?” she asked herself, before shaking her head and sipping her beer, “Must be a spell or something.”

Dressed in a flower pattern bikini, Dawn looked hotter now than she had done all those years ago, or so it seemed to Faith. Okay she was seven month’s gone with kid number six, okay her boobs were bigger than they used to be and were just beginning to sag a little, but what did you expect? Whatever, she was still sex on legs.

“Hi, Dawnie,” Faith smiled up at her old friend.

“Hi y’self,” Dawn eased herself down on the lounger next to Faith’s with a relieved sigh, “Hiding from the kids?”

“Yeah,” Faith frowned but kept her voice light, “somethin’ like that.”

As Dawn had sat down she’d turned her back to Faith and she’d seen the marks on Dawn’s back from the boss’ whips, still visible after all these years. Of course they weren’t that bad, most people didn’t even notice them, but Faith knew they were there and every time she saw them she regretted the fact that they’d not found Dawn sooner.

“Oooh,” Dawn lay back on the lounger and closed her eyes for a moment as she stroked her stomach, “I hate this part.”

“Ya what?” Faith looked at the woman beside her in surprise, “I thought ya liked being pregnant an’ kids an’ the whole ‘soccer mom’ thing.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Dawn reassured her, “I love the getting pregnant, I mean that’s always fun,” she grinned lasciviously “And being pregnant and babies and children it’s just…” Dawn sighed again, “it’s the seven month thing. I’ve had it every time since I had Buffy,” Dawn explained with a self deprecating laugh, “I’ve got over the ‘Yay! I’m pregnant!’ thing and its still a while to the, ‘Yay! New baby!’ part, seven months just gets me down a little.”

“So,” Faith cast a weary eye at Dawn’s bump, “what’s this one goin’ to be?”

“Should be a girl,” Dawn replied knowingly, “so she’ll be ‘Becky’.”

“Cool,” Faith took a swig of her beer and felt just a twinge of jealousy, “so how do you work that out?”

“Boy, girl, boy, girl, boy,” Dawn counted off her children on her fingers, “so the chances are number six is a little ‘Summers’.”

“I love the way ya so certain,” Faith laughed.

“Hey look,” Dawn grinned, “I’m a mom, I know stuff like that.”

“Yeah, sure,” Faith took another sip of her beer as she watched Willow entertain Dawn’s brood on the other side of the pool.

“Everything okay with you and Willow?” Dawn asked slightly concerned at Faith’s suddenly pensive look.

“Yeah,” Faith replied quietly, “we’re doing alright.”

Faith and Willow had drifted into a relationship about six years previously, they lived together in a flat in London, if they weren’t jetting around the world dealing with the latest evil incursion. It made Faith think, although she tried not to, she’d never have what Dawn had. A nice home with a pool, a cool husband, loads of kids. Living with Willow just made it hurt more in a way, knowing that she’d never get the chance at ‘normal’.

“You’re my hero, Dawn,” Faith announced out of the blue.

“You what!?” Dawn glanced sharply at her friend, “No way, I’m totally not a hero, I’m just a mom, if anyone’s a hero ‘round here it’s you and Willow.”

“No, ya wrong,” Faith became unexpectedly serious, “look, you know better than most what goes on in the world, how we’re all balanced on a bridge over hell with both ends on fire. Yet ya don’t let it get ya down; ya have babies and bake sales an’ PTA’s an’ all that normal shit, all knowing that it could all be swept into hell in a second. Just being you, that’s what makes ya a hero.”

“Thanks,” Dawn replied a little taken aback by Faith’s outburst, “But I can only do it knowing my kids can sleep safe at night because of you and Willow and Giles and all the others are there to watch out for us.”

The sound of childish singing floated across the pool to Dawn and Faith. They looked up to see the children, Dawn’s husband Norm and Willow sitting on a couple of loungers holding a sort of impromptu concert.

_“I don’t care if it rains or freezes,  
As long as I’ve got my plastic Jesus,  
Sittin’ on the dashboard of my car…”_

“Buffy taught me that song when I was about five,” Dawn explained, “and I taught it to my kids so every time I heard them singing it I could think of Buffy like she was before she was the slayer.”

Faith kept quiet knowing that those memories were just the fakes the monks had planted in Dawn’s mind. They were real to Dawn and Faith would say nothing that would spoil the illusion.

“Faith,” Dawn said slowly as she turned to look at her old friend, “do you think Buffy ever realised how much I really loved her back then?”

“Yeah,” Faith reached out and took hold of Dawn’s hand, she gave it a gentle squeeze, “I’m sure she did, Dawnie,” Faith lied so as not to make her friend feel bad, “I’m sure she did.”

Turning away so she wouldn’t have to look at Dawn’s face anymore and to hide her own tears, Faith listened as the kids sang their song through once more...

_“I don’t care if it rains or freezes,  
As long as I’ve got my plastic Jesus,  
Sittin’ on the dashboard of my car.  
Comes in colours pink and pleasant,  
Glows in the dark ‘cause its iridescent  
Take it with you,  
When you travel far.” _

THE END.


End file.
